


Time Out of Mind

by Joe_Reaves



Category: Primeval
Genre: Alternate Timeline, Angst, F/M, First Time, M/M, Plotty, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-04-15
Updated: 2010-04-15
Packaged: 2017-10-08 23:36:12
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 33,132
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/80654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joe_Reaves/pseuds/Joe_Reaves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nick and Stephen have to go to Scotland, anomaly hunting, on their own. Things don't go as planned, but as they deal with the unintended consequences of their actions they work to salvage their friendship and turn it into something more</p>
            </blockquote>





	Time Out of Mind

Cutter burst into Lester's office without knocking. "You have to see this, Lester," he said, not even waiting for the door to close behind him before he started talking.

"Come in, sit down," Lester said, rolling his eyes at the man's behaviour. "Didn't your mother ever teach you to wait for an answer before just marching into a room? What is it you've got yourself all worked up about now?"

"Look at these." Cutter ignored Lester's tone; he was used to it by now. He spread a handful of grainy photographs out on the polished desk. "A colleague in Scotland sent me them. They're pictures of a deer, but it must be at least a couple of metres tall. He thought it might be a throwback, similar to the Irish Elk, but it's more likely there's an anomaly up there and it just wandered through. Apparently, there's quite a competition between several hunters to see who can bag it. We have to go up there and investigate."

"Has Connor's detector gone off?"

 

"Well, no, but there's lots of blackspots in the Highlands it wouldn't be able to reach because of the mountains. And besides what else could it be? Have you ever seen a deer that big? And look at the antlers. It's an Irish Elk!"

"I'm not sending you on a wild goose chase," complained Lester complained. "It's a complete waste of time and resources. It's a deer. Let someone bag it and mount it on their wall."

"It's prehistoric," Cutter insisted. "I want to take a team and track it down. We can test Connor's mobile detectors while we're up there, see if we can find the anomaly the beast came through."

Lester rubbed his temples; he was getting a headache. He was getting them more and more often these days and they were usually preceded by a Scottish accent and a lot of unnecessary hand waving. "I repeat, it's a deer. I can't send the whole team to Scotland just because you've developed a taste for venison."

"I want to go," Cutter repeated.

"Yes and my children want a pony, but that's not happening either." Lester sighed. "You're sure it couldn't just be a big deer?"

"It's prehistoric, it has to be," Cutter said again. "And that means an anomaly. Look, I can go on my own. If I find it then I can call the team in." He looked at Lester hopefully.

"Fine. You can go," Lester conceded. "But you can't take the team and I'm not sending any special forces soldiers with you. They cost too much to train to have me waste their time wandering around in the rain on some kind of big game hunt that will probably end up to have nothing to do with an anomaly." He paused and Cutter grinned triumphantly. "Take Stephen," he added, feeling his own wave of victory as Cutter's smile melted away. "He's the one with the tracking experience and the ability to shoot it. If you go on your own you'll be tramping aimlessly around in the heather for weeks."

Stomping out of the office, Cutter muttered to himself. He didn't want to take Stephen. They'd been managing to pretty much avoid one another since Helen's revelation. They'd talked, briefly, in the shopping centre and since then they'd been pretending nothing was wrong while managing never to be alone with one another. And now bloody James bloody Lester was going to make him take Stephen all the way up to the Highlands with him where they'd be alone in the middle of nowhere for goodness' knows how long.

He called a meeting of the whole team down in the recreation room and spread his photos out on the table. "What do you all think of this?" he asked.

"It's a deer," Abby said, slowly. "Looks like that painting, Monarch of the Glen."

Connor looked at it and tilted his head. "The antlers are too big. Megaloceros?"

"Has to be," Cutter said. "Must be a couple of metres tall. There's no way it could be anything else."

Stephen picked one of the pictures up, looking at it carefully. "It couldn't be doctored? Or taken at an angle to make it look bigger?"

"Only way to be sure is go up there and see if we can find where the pictures were taken," Cutter replied. "And then track the beastie down and see if we can send it back where it came from. If the anomaly's already gone ... well, Lester was referring to it as venison so I don't hold out much hope for it if we can't send it home."

"If there's an anomaly why hasn't the detector picked it up?" Stephen asked, cautiously. "Are you sure you're not just seeing what you want to see, Cutter?"

Glaring at him, Cutter shook his head. "You know what it's like up there," he insisted, trying not to think of why Stephen knew the Highlands. He didn't want to think about the time they'd spent together there, not when he was trying to stay aloof and ignore the younger man. "You can't get a mobile signal for anything in those valleys. There could be a dozen anomalies up there and the detector would never pick them up."

"Cool. We can take the mobile detectors and try them out," Connor said. "They've never been tested somewhere like that."

"You're not going," Cutter told him. "I couldn't get Lester to send a team."

"So why are you showing us this?" Stephen asked, tossing the picture down in disgust. What a waste of time. If they weren't going to look then all the discussion in the world wouldn't achieve anything.

"I said he wouldn't send the team, Stephen," Cutter snapped, raising his voice. "Connor and Abby are staying here and so are the soldiers. We're going on our own."

~*~*~*~

Stephen slammed the door to his apartment and stalked into the bedroom. It was typical bloody Cutter, organising a trip without even asking him if he was all right with it and then just expecting him to fall in step like a good little assistant. He couldn't even be bothered to speak to Stephen outside of work any more, certainly wasn't interested in socialising or even listening to his apologies, but then something like this comes up and Cutter just expects him to jump when ordered to.

"You don't look happy," Helen said, smiling up at him from the bed. "Did Nick do something to upset you?"

He spun around and stared at her. "What do you want now Helen? I can't seriously have the only shower worth visiting in a million years. Can't you go and annoy someone else?"

Helen got up and walked towards him, swinging her hips and reminding him exactly why he'd slept with her in the first place. She made him think of a predator, beautiful and graceful but with an air of danger about her. He could feel his body reacting to her presence and turned his back on her, pulling a bag out of the wardrobe.

"I was right, wasn't I?" she asked softly, wrapping one arm around his waist and leaning up to rest her chin on his shoulder. "Nick was hiding something. There's something going on, Stephen, something you know nothing about."

He shook her off and dropped the bag on the bed. "I have to pack. We're going up to Scotland, looking for a prehistoric deer and some phantom anomaly he's convinced himself is there. Do you know anything about that, Helen?"

She shrugged. "I've never travelled though any Scottish anomalies." She ran her hand along his spine softly, teasing him. "Why do you let Nick order you around like this? Can't you see he's getting in too deep? He's letting them manipulate him. Don't let him drag you down with him."

Stephen sighed. He knew she was right, at least in part. There was something happening; someone from within was working to their own agenda. Most likely it was Lester. If only Cutter hadn't stupidly lost their only piece of evidence, the only clue to who was behind things. Right now he didn't have time to worry about that though. He needed to pack so he and Cutter could head to Scotland, probably on a fool's errand, but that wasn't his call. It was Cutter's and the man wasn't willing to listen to anyone else, certainly not him. All he could do was follow him and try and keep him out of trouble, even if it wasn't appreciated.

"If you don't have anything useful to say then I need to pack. We're driving so that we don't have to try and explain the guns and the equipment and the later we get going, the later we'll get there. I don't want to have to drive all night because I was listening to your cryptic little hints." Stuffing his clothing in the bag, he grabbed his things from the bathroom, added a book, a sturdy pair of shoes, and his laptop and then found a waterproof jacket at the back of his wardrobe. "I don't know when we'll be back," he told her. "Let yourself out, Helen."

Without waiting for a response, he slung his bag over his shoulder and headed for the door. This trip was going to be bad enough anyway, he really hadn't needed Helen making things worse before he even left. When the door slammed shut behind him he straightened up, trying not to look as tired and defeated as he felt, and headed for the lobby. Cutter had said he'd be by to pick him up as soon as he'd packed.

~*~*~*~

Cutter sighed and pulled onto the slip road. They'd been going a couple of hours now and Stephen was insisting on staring out of the window and ignoring him, not that he'd exactly been falling over himself to make conversation if he was honest. Maybe this trip would help them find a way they could actually work together because the closest they'd come to their old relationship had been when they were stranded in the Permian and trying to outwit a bunch of massive oversized scorpions. He didn't think he could handle only being able to talk to Stephen when they thought they were going to die.

Stephen looked up, the change in rhythm of the car pulling him out of his thoughts. "We're stopping?"

Cutter shrugged. "You don't like driving for more than two hours at a time. You need to get out, stretch, take a break. I thought we could get coffee."

Stephen smiled. He really hadn't thought Cutter would care, even though he'd always made sure they had regular breaks every other time they'd gone anywhere together. "Coffee would be good but if we're going to stop every couple of hours, we'll never get there, Cutter. I can deal with it. At least your car has plenty of leg room."

"I booked us a hotel for tonight," Cutter told him. "We should be there by evening even with regular stops and then it's just a short trip tomorrow morning to get us where we're going."

Stephen looked at him and then smiled again. "Thank you. I know you'd usually rather drive straight through. I don't imagine Lester will be happy about the extra stop either."

"Lester can just suck it up," Cutter grumbled. "He ordered me to bring you with me, so he can deal with you wanting to stop."

Stephen turned back to the window, angry at himself for thinking Cutter was trying to be nice when he was apparently only here because Lester had insisted on it.

Cutter swerved the car into a parking space, hitting the brakes with a force born of frustration. He couldn't believe he'd practically told Stephen he didn't want him here. He'd just finished thinking that maybe they could try and patch things up and here he was pushing him away again. It seemed every time they started acting normally, he just had to remind Stephen that he was still angry with him.

Stephen watched for a second as Cutter practically hurled himself out of the car, stomping off into the services, before hurrying after him. By the time they got to the overpriced restaurant, he'd fallen in step behind Cutter, just like always. He was still pissed that Cutter hadn't wanted him to come, but he had stopped the car. That was an overture of some kind, even if it wasn't exactly an obvious one. Still, this was Cutter.

Stopping had been a clumsy, Cutterlike olive branch and then the admission that he hadn't wanted Stephen along anyway was an equally clumsy and Cutterlike insult, but probably an accidental one. He shook his head and smiled to himself. Even when it was irritating as hell, there was still something oddly endearing about Cutter's inability to interact with others like a normal human being.

He automatically poured two teas from the machine and put them on Cutter's tray, adding a Danish and an apple to the chocolate bar Cutter had already picked out. When they got to the cashier Cutter pulled his wallet out, but Stephen stopped him, passing his own credit card over to the girl instead and smiling at her.

"You're driving," he said softly, smiling at Cutter and hoping he recognised the move for what it was, a reminder of an old routine.

When they'd first started travelling together on field trips, he'd still been a grad student and was always short of money. Rather than trying to just give him money, which he would have been too proud to accept, even when he was living off pot noodles and microwave pizza, Cutter always insisted that as long as Stephen was driving, he was already doing his share and so it was only fair that Cutter pay for the meals whenever they stopped. It had given Stephen a way he could accept help from Cutter without being embarrassed and he was hoping that the reminder would make Cutter think about the good times they'd had before Helen had opened her mouth and ruined everything.

Cutter hesitated and then put his wallet away, smiling to himself. It looked like he'd been forgiven for putting his foot in it earlier. When they got to their table he watched Stephen cut the Danish into bite sized pieces so that he wouldn't get too sticky and grinned. It was such a typically Stephen thing to do. Absently he reached over and helped himself to one of the bits, grinning sheepishly when Stephen rolled his eyes at him.

"You could have ordered your own," he pointed out, but he didn't try and stop Cutter sharing the pastry.

~*~*~*~

The rest of the journey passed surprisingly peacefully. Although they weren't back to their normal banter, they were both making an effort to keep the conversation friendly and light-hearted and by the time Cutter pulled into the hotel car park they were both in a significantly better mood than they had been when they'd left home that morning. Unfortunately, that wasn't going to last.

"What do you mean, it has a double bed?" Cutter asked grumpily. "I know I asked for a twin."

"I know, sir," the receptionist said. "I'm sorry. The girl who took your reservation made a mistake. I'm authorised to offer you a discount and two free meals in the restaurant, but it's our last room. We're fully booked so I can't change you to a twin now."

"Well that doesn't help!" Cutter snapped.

"Cutter, she's doing her best. Don't shout at the nice lady who's making sure you don't have to sleep in the car tonight," Stephen said. Smiling at the receptionist, he asked, "Do you have any camp beds or something like that that you could set up in the room for us? Or a spare mattress on the floor maybe? I'm used to camping when we're working so I don't mind if it's not that comfortable. I can sleep anywhere."

"I'm really sorry," the receptionist said again. "We don't offer camp beds and a second mattress in there would be a fire hazard. I can ring around the hotels in the area and see if I can find you anything, if you want."

"Forget it," Cutter said gruffly, but not as angrily as before. "Just give us the key and we'll take you up on those free meals as soon as we've got settled in." He signed the form she'd given him and took the key. "Thank you for trying," he added, when Stephen shot him a look.

Stephen shouldered his bag and followed Cutter up the stairs. "Come on," he cajoled. "It could be worse. It won't be the first time we've shared a bed. Hell, we've shared a sleeping bag when we've had to in the past." He paused. "Are we really so far apart now that you can't stand the idea of being that close to me?"

Cutter ran a hand through his hair and sighed. Before answering, he slid the key card through the reader and opened the door. "I miss proper keys," he muttered. Turning around to look at Stephen, he sighed again. "It's not that, really. It's just … ah, hell, I don't want things to be like this, Stephen, really. But I can't help how I feel. You lied to me, for eight years! I can't just forget that and trust you again."

Stephen leaned against the door and looked down. "You won't even let me apologise," he said quietly. "You just keep shutting me out. I know I deserve it but that doesn't make it any less ..." He stopped. He wasn't going to stand here and whine about how much pain he was in, like a teenager. It was his own fault he was in this mess in the first place.

"You're going to have to give me some time, lad," Cutter said, reaching out and brushing his hand against Stephen's shoulder. "I'm doing my best but I can't just forget it."

Stephen looked up, seeing how hard it was for Cutter to be open about his feelings like this, but that he was trying to get past Helen's revelation. "I know you don't want to hear it right now, but I am truly sorry. I shouldn't have lied to you, but I thought she was gone for ever and what good would it have done to tell you that she'd been cheating on you? And yes, I admit, I didn't want you to know because I knew you'd be angry. I fucked up." He shrugged. "There's nothing I can do about that now, other than try and prove that I'm still your friend."

Cutter sighed. "I know, Stephen. I might not be acting like it but I don't want that to change. We make a good team. Our little escapade in the Silurian shows that. It'll just take a while until we're back to normal when we're not running for our lives."

Stephen nodded and forced a smile. "Come on, let's go and take advantage of those free meals we've been offered and then we'll get an early night. Then we can be on our way first thing tomorrow and go and find out if your deer really is an Irish elk or just a bloody big deer."

~*~*~*~

When Cutter woke up the next morning, it was to the feel of another body plastered along his back and a strong arm wrapped around his waist. Stephen was snuffling softly in his sleep, hot breath ruffling the hair at the back of Cutter's neck. He couldn't help grinning. This always happened. Even when they were sharing a tent and supposedly separated by their respective sleeping bags, Stephen still seemed drawn to him while he slept. At first it had been a little disconcerting, but now it was familiar, comforting, in a way that very little about their current relationship was.

He supposed that as a heterosexual man, especially one of his generation, he should be disturbed by Stephen's tendency to snuggle, but he wasn't. The first few times it had happened he'd carefully extricated himself, trying not to wake Stephen, but by the end of their first expedition together he'd stopped bothering. Eventually Stephen would wake up, grin sheepishly, and pull back to his side of the tent or the bed. Then they'd both get up and, seemingly by mutual, if unspoken, consent, they wouldn't mention it. He'd worried about it a little at first, but then it had become normal, expected. They'd always been just the wrong side of the line when it came to how much two straight men were meant to touch, it was just how their relationship worked, which was why it was so obvious now that there was an unaccustomed gulf between them.

Cutter smiled to himself; apparently that gulf only existed when they were awake. Asleep, Stephen would still snuggle close and treat him like a teddy bear. He wriggled and pulled Stephen's arm from around his waist, provoking a sleepy grumble from the other man. "It's morning, Stephen," he said, pulling away and sitting up. "Time to get up."

Stephen blinked and pulled back, blushing slightly. "Sorry," he said softly, fairly certain Cutter wouldn't appreciate him being so close. "You can use the bathroom first," he offered. "I'll make tea while you're in there."

He watched as Cutter got out of bed and stretched before padding into the bathroom and shutting the door. Once he was sure he was alone, he shoved the covers back and glared down at his uncooperative body. Now was not the time to get hard, no matter how cute Cutter looked in the mornings. They hadn't even managed to fix their friendship yet; Cutter definitely didn't need to know that his male assistant found him attractive, especially when he seemed to still be mooning over the mysterious Claudia Brown. Although if Claudia really did look like Jenny, he could see the attraction. Jenny Lewis had a very attractive set of attributes. It was a pity, in Stephen's opinion, that she dressed in those horrible power suits and heels. She looked like a female barracuda and after Helen he preferred women who looked a little less aggressive.

Fortunately, thinking about Jenny had solved his problem, so he got out of bed and put the little kettle on so they could have tea before heading downstairs for breakfast. He wasn't entirely sure when his feelings for Cutter had changed. It had been a gradual thing. Slowly they'd moved from student and mentor, to colleagues and friends, and then more, until one day he'd woken up and realised that his relationship with Cutter was more important and closer than any of his relationships with girlfriends had been. In fact, on more than one occasion he'd cancelled dates in order to do something with Cutter.

He'd hoped he could sublimate those feelings with Abby, but he'd soon realised it wouldn't be fair to her and had invented a girlfriend in South America to put her off. He'd just have to settle for staying as Cutter's friend while having a string of casual relationships to satisfy his other needs. And then Helen had come back, told everyone about their affair, and then disappeared back through her anomaly, leaving him to deal with the fall out. Suddenly he'd been pushed aside and could only watch from a distance as Cutter and the others got on with things, pretty much without him. It left a large Cutter sized hole in his life and he wasn't sure how he was going to fill it if they didn't patch things up. Unfortunately, other than being there and showing Cutter that he wanted things to be back the way they were, there was nothing he could do to fix things any more. He just had to wait and hope Cutter decided the eight years they'd been friends were more important than the two weeks he'd spent sleeping with Helen.

The shower shut off and the bathroom door cracked open a little to let the steam out. Stephen poured the boiling water into the mugs and left them to stand while he grabbed his towels from his bag. Cutter came out with one wrapped around his waist and another in his hands as he dried off his hair.

"Tea's over there, mate," he said, brushing past him and heading into the bathroom to take his own shower.

Cutter nodded and finished drying his hair. He fished the tea bags out and dropped them in the bin, adding milk to both mugs and sugar to Stephen's before rummaging through his bag and getting dressed. They'd dropped back into the easy routine that they'd always had when working together in the past. He looked up and smiled when Stephen came back out of the bathroom.

"The tea's ready," he said. "Get dressed and we can plan where we're looking today."

Stephen nodded and got into his own clothing, noticing how Cutter carefully looked the other way until he was decent. Spreading the map out on the bed, they both stretched out, mugs of tea in hand, and started planning. It would take another two or three hours to get to the hotel they were going to use as a base for their expedition.

"Right," Cutter said. "The pictures were taken around here." He pointed at a spot on the map. "We'll have to find the exact spot to make an estimate of the beastie's size and hopefully you'll be able to pick up it's trail from there. We're going to have to find the deer and the anomaly it came through. Then we'll see if we can send it back." He looked up and grinned. "Might be an anomaly to the Stone Age. Just think, we might find people through it."

Stephen laughed; Cutter's childlike excitement was contagious. "I'll just settle for going through one and not ending up being chased by anything. Every time I step through an anomaly something tries to kill me."

"Well, with the future one technically they were after Abby," Cutter teased. "Stone Age sounds pretty safe though, so you should be all right. We'll have to try not to bump into any people in case we change history, but I'd love to look around, wouldn't you?"

Stephen laughed again and nodded. "I have to admit, it would be fascinating. And how could anyone resist something like that? There's so much we can learn." He turned more serious. "But even if we do learn things, we can't share those findings. Don't you feel selfish, meeting all these creatures, seeing all these things and not publishing your findings?"

Cutter sighed. "What do you want me to say? Yes, I'd love to publish papers on this, to share it with everyone and discuss our findings and what they mean, but can you imagine the chaos that would happen if everyone knew about the anomalies? You'd have people trying to go through them – students, academics, adventurers. It's too dangerous; they'd change things. History would be changing every day. It would be chaos."

Stephen shrugged. "People have a right to know about the dangers."

"Why?" Cutter asked, starting to lose his temper. "Listen to yourself, Stephen. You're talking rubbish. We can't predict the anomalies. All we could tell people is that at any time, in any place, you might come face to face with something from the past that's going to kill you! It's not exactly helpful advice."

"I know," Stephen said. "But people are dying."

"And warning them won't stop that happening," Cutter practically shouted. "All it will do is make our job more difficult. Do you want to try capturing a raptor while some bloody fool who thinks it would be fun is getting in our way and probably getting himself or worse, one of us, eaten?"

Stephen ran a hand through his hair in frustration. "I know, you're right, but there has to be something we can do. Some way we can warn people without it leading to a free for all. Think about that fire fighter we met. Her partner died because they thought they were dealing with a fire instead of prehistoric worms from the dawn of history. If they'd known they could have taken better precautions."

"Until he died, we didn't know what dangers they were facing," Cutter pointed out. "We have the detector now though. We can keep the emergency services from charging in like that now. I know you're frustrated, do you really think I'm not? But we're doing the best we can with what we know. If you want to tell people, why don't you come up with an actual concrete plan for how we tell them and how we stop it becoming chaos, because until you do, no one's interested in listening to you ranting."

Stephen glared but bit his tongue before he said anything else to piss Cutter off. Deep down he knew Cutter had a point, but all the secrecy was making it easier for whoever was behind the mercenaries to operate. "Helen was right," he said. "You sound just like Lester. I don't know what he's up to but he's going to take you down with him."

Cutter narrowed his eyes. "When exactly were you talking to Helen?"

Stephen winced. "It's not what you think," he said hurriedly. "She keeps showing up. I don't even know why I bother locking my front door any more. She seems to be able to waltz in and out of my flat whenever she wants."

"And instead of kicking her out you have time to talk to her about me," Cutter said, sitting up abruptly and folding the map so he could shove it back in his bag. "What the hell was all that crap last night about wanting to fix things between us?"

"It wasn't crap," Stephen said urgently. "I don't invite Helen in; she just turns up. At least she's interested in what I have to say. You're ignoring me, cutting me out of things." He sighed. "I don't trust her, she's up to something, but she was right about the mercenaries. Someone has an agenda they're not telling you about and I don't want to see you get hurt."

"Really?" Cutter sneered. "Well, how about you stop fucking my wife then?"

"I'm not!" Stephen shouted. "This is why I didn't tell you she was back, I knew you wouldn't believe me. But I'm not sleeping with her. Please, you have to trust me."

"Why should I?" Cutter asked, his anger ebbing away and leaving only sadness. "Christ, Stephen, I thought you wanted things back the way they were, but then you were lying to me the entire time so I suppose I shouldn't expect you to be any different now."

Stephen reached out and grabbed Cutter's arm. "You have to trust me, Cutter. I wouldn't do that to you, not again. I never want to see you as hurt as you were when she told you about the affair. She turns up and I can't seem to just throw her out, but I'm not interested in rekindling the affair. It was two weeks, eight years ago. And I'll admit she's still a very attractive woman, but I prefer not to sleep with people who I don't trust."

Cutter looked at him searchingly. He really wanted to believe him, but Stephen had lied for eight years and he'd had never suspected a thing. How could he know he was telling the truth now? He closed his eyes briefly. He couldn't, he could never know for certain, he could only choose to believe him or not. If he decided Stephen was lying then that was it, their friendship was over and he wasn't even sure they'd be able to work together...

He nodded. "Fine, I believe you, Stephen. You're not sleeping with her, but you're still seeing her. She's nothing but trouble. I don't know how she knows about the mercenaries or why she's telling you about them but I promise you, concern for my well being is not her motivation. She's trying to make you suspicious of us, stop you trusting us." He took another deep breath and looked at Stephen seriously. "You have to choose whether you trust her or whether you trust us. You're either part of this team or you're not, but Helen's the enemy now. I don't know what happened to her but she's not on our side; she's not even on your side. She's on Helen's side and no one else's. I'm choosing to believe you even when I have every reason to think you're lying to me. It's your turn to choose, Stephen. Helen or the team, you can't have both."

~*~*~*~

Cutter parked the car as close as possible to the place where the picture of the deer had been taken. Shouldering his rucksack, he watched Stephen doing the same. Between them they were carrying a small, two-man tent, sleeping bags, food, water, and all the other supplies they'd need for two or at most three nights in the open. If it took any longer they'd have to come back to the car and resupply. Stephen had a tranquilliser gun as well and they both had smaller hand guns. They wouldn't be enough to kill anything large that had followed the deer through but they should make most things have second thoughts about taking them on, which was all they needed for now.

Things had changed between them since this morning's fight. It seemed like they'd come to a crossroads and rather than letting things drift along, hoping that they'd get better, they'd both made a conscious decision to try and move forwards, choosing their friendship over Helen and her venom.

Stephen looked up at him and smiled. "Well, are you coming or are you going to stand there wool-gathering for the rest of the day? We have a deer to catch, remember?"

Cutter grinned back and locked the car, slipping the keys into his pocket and picking his way over the uneven ground to where Stephen was standing. "Let's go."

As they started hiking, Cutter could feel himself relaxing. The fresh air was a nice change from London and the peace was beginning to seep into his bones, replacing the stress he'd been under since the world had changed. Bumping gently against Stephen to get his attention, he said, "Since we don't have anything better to do, why don't you tell me how we found the anomalies in this timeline? Because you must have known about them for longer than I have. It's been less than a year since Connor ran into my office, brandishing his newspaper and babbling about conspiracies, and they wouldn't have had time to get planning permission for that monstrosity we work out of, let alone build the horrid thing."

Stephen laughed and shook his head. "Just because it's not all wood and leather and so cluttered you can't find anything on less than a week's notice."

"For someone who likes to complain about my office you didn't seem to have any problems working in it. Besides can you really say you like my new office better? It's cold and impersonal and it has all that ..."

"Technology?" Stephen teased. "I miss the kitchen. Sure we have the recreation room and we can make drinks down there but it was much easier to procrastinate when you could just close your office door and no one would bother us. Still, the Playstation's good," he added with a grin.

"You weren't saying that when Connor beat you at ... whatever the hell it was you two were playing the other day," Cutter said, smiling as they dropped back almost into their old way of talking to one another.

"Connor cheats, I'm sure of it. I just haven't figured out how yet."

"So, when did we find the first anomaly?" Cutter prompted, letting Stephen off rather than pressing him about Connor's alleged cheating.

"It was just over eighteen months ago. Coming towards the end of the year and you were trying to avoid all the students who were after you, not to mention the Dean because your final draft of the first year exam had gone missing, again. I swear you lose that bloody thing every year, Cutter. You were looking for any excuse and Connor came running in convinced he'd found the Loch Ness Monster or something like it lurking in the Serpentine. He had some skin and scat from the mystery animal and you figured that the Dean couldn't bother you in the middle of Hyde Park so we went. Found the 'monster', found the anomaly, and then found James Lester and a lot of men in black with big guns." He grinned. "So Connor was chasing conspiracies in your timeline too? Tell me more."

Cutter nodded. "Came running in, waving a newspaper, and talking about some massive creature that the government was hiding and something about all life on earth being created by aliens." He chuckled. "I thought he was a nut, but then he brought up Helen, said she'd have gone looking. I defended her. I said she was a serious scientist." He shook his head in disgust. "I wish I'd known then what I know now, although ... If I had, then I might not have gone and we might never have been involved with the anomalies." He shrugged and smiled. "Maybe we were fated to find them though. Two different timelines, two different histories and yet the four of us end up working for Lester in both of them."

"What about things before the anomalies?" Stephen asked, warming to the subject. "Do we have the same history?"

Cutter tilted his head. "I hadn't thought about it. I just assumed." He smiled a little. "You're Stephen. I expect you always to be there, not changing. I hope everything is the same. I don't like the idea we have different memories. It's bad enough knowing our recent, anomaly related history is different."

Stephen ducked his head and then bumped against Cutter. He was absurdly pleased that the memories of the things they'd done together were as important to Cutter as they were to him. "Do you remember when we first really became friends instead of just professor and student?"

Cutter smiled fondly at the memory. "It was that expedition to Brazil. I only knew you as one of Helen's grad students before then. I knew you were intelligent and pretty talented but that was all and then Helen had to drop out of the trip at the last minute, although I wonder now if she really 'had' to or if she had something else she wanted to do instead. Had she already found the anomalies at that point do you think? We weren't back long before she vanished on us. I can't help but think that when she disappeared through the Forest of Dean anomaly that might not have been the first time she'd seen it."

Stephen looked at him sharply. "You know, I'd never thought about it like that. She wanted you to go with her the day she vanished. Do you think she planned for both of you to go?"

"Maybe. But when I met her back in the Cretaceous she said she hadn't told me about them because I would have wanted to tell everyone else," Cutter said. "Maybe that was why she never came back for me. She might have thought if I was with her I'd have gone along with her plan." He shrugged. "Maybe I would have"

"You wouldn't," Stephen said firmly. "I know you, Cutter. You'd have been thrilled, fascinated, downright geeky in fact, but you'd have wanted to share that feeling with other scientists." He winked and Cutter laughed.

"Yeah, you're right. I could never have kept it to myself, not even for Helen. And I wouldn't have wanted to live in the past for even a week, let alone eight years." Cutter shivered at the thought and Stephen reached over to squeeze his arm.

"So, the Brazil trip happened the same for both of us?" Stephen asked, wanting to move Cutter back onto happier memories.

"I think so," Cutter said. "You took Helen's place so we were sharing a tent, which meant we spent a lot of time together. We used to sit next to the fire after the students had gone to bed for the night, with a mug of tea each, just listening to the jungle and talking. Then the last night we were there you pulled out a bottle of whisky and I still don't know how you managed to bring that with you without anyone finding it." He laughed. "We had a couple of drinks in front of the fire and then took it back into the tent with us. There wasn't a whole lot left by morning and both of us had killer hangovers. It was fun though."

Stephen smiled back. "It was. When we find your deer you'll have to see if I've managed to do it again."

Cutter shot him a suspicious look. "You brought whisky with you again? You do know alcohol isn't actually meant to be part of the survival kit for a camping trip?"

"It is when you're camping with a grumpy Scotsman," Stephen teased. "Besides, I like getting you drunk. You get all silly and you relax. I haven't seen you properly relaxed since we found the dodos."

Cutter stopped in his tracks and then started laughing. Shaking his head, he leaned against Stephen a little and then brushed his hand over his shoulder as he started walking again. "Thank you, Stephen. When we've got the deer back where it belongs you can pull the bottle out and we'll get as drunk as you want. I promise. Now let's get moving. I want to at least find its trail before we stop for lunch."

~*~*~*~

Stephen wasn't stupid enough to think that a couple of hours reminiscing as they walked had fixed everything between them, but the fight about Helen this morning had helped clear the air a little and then swapping stories had reminded them both what it was they were trying to get back to. Hopefully their fight had been the first step towards a better relationship, maybe not the same as they'd had before but different rather than worse. They'd both made a conscious decision that it was worth fighting to recapture it and maybe that would work better than just drifting along, pretending things were fine and hoping everything would turn out okay.

"Does that hill look like the one in your photo?" he asked.

Cutter pulled the picture out and they both stood there, heads bent over it, comparing the photograph to the view in front of them. "Looks like the deer was a hundred feet or so further down the valley," Cutter said. "Go on." He gestured for Stephen to go ahead of him. "Do your thing and find it."

Stephen rolled his eyes, but inside he was smiling because of Cutter's assumption that he wouldn't have a problem finding the deer's trail. Of course, he thought, as he knelt down to examine the ground, a two metre tall animal did tend to leave quite an obvious trail, especially on the slightly soft ground. The heather was springy and too resilient to retain footprints, but the rest of the ground was holding them quite well. He pointed and looked back at Cutter. "Whatever it was, it went that way."

Pulling out the mobile anomaly detector, Cutter turned it on and smiled triumphantly at the familiar sound. "There's an anomaly in that direction too. Maybe we'll be lucky and it will have gone back on its own. I don't fancy manhandling something that size through an anomaly."

"Well, keep your fingers crossed then," Stephen told him. "With the way our luck's been going recently it's only gone back to collect the rest of its herd."

Cutter chuckled ruefully. "Don't tempt fate. I'm not calling Lester to say that one deer just became twenty and could he possibly send us some soldiers and Jenny because the locals are starting to look at us funny."

Stephen grinned. "I'd rather tell him that in person, his face would be a picture." Leading the way, he followed the tracks as they wound along the contours of the hills. He was looking at the ground as he walked so he could be sure he didn't lose the trail so when Cutter stopped he didn't notice it at once.

"Ah shit," Cutter cursed. "Any idea which one we want?"

"Which what ..." Stephen started to ask, and then he looked up. Straight at two anomalies, one on either side of the stream that ran through this valley. "Oh. Well, that's different. Let's see which one the deer went through."

He followed the tracks down to the stream and then lost them. Looking at the water he sighed and took a few steps back. With a short run up he leapt over the stream and landed heavily on the other side, going down on one knee as he slipped in the mud. "Bugger." He stood up and brushed ineffectually at the mud, doing no more than spreading the mud around. He dried his hands off on his jeans and stood up.

"Are you okay?" Cutter called.

"Yeah, just muddy. Nothing to worry about," Stephen called back. "Looks like our deer went through this one."

Cutter pulled his rucksack off and tossed it over to Stephen before jumping the stream himself. He skidded as he landed and Stephen grabbed him, keeping him upright.

"No point both of us getting muddy," he said amiably. "Pull your phone out and tell Lester you were right about the anomalies. The sooner you tell him, the sooner he can get someone out here to watch them and make sure your deer doesn't come back and that nothing else comes through either. Besides Connor will want to have a little geek out over the double anomalies."

"No signal," Cutter said looking at his phone morosely. "I said the anomaly would be in a mobile phone blackspot."

Stephen rolled his eyes. "Yes, yes, as usual you were right and I should have listened to you."

Cutter blinked at him. "What? That wasn't what I meant, I just meant we can't call Lester."

"There will probably be a signal if you climb the hill," Stephen suggested. "Or you can stay here and I'll go."

Cutter looked at the anomaly thoughtfully. "We should check this is the right anomaly. What if it came out of that one?" He pointed at the second anomaly. "And then went back through this one? We don't know how much damage that could do. You go up and call Lester while I check this anomaly leads to the right time."

"What? No!" Stephen said vehemently. "You don't know how stable it is. It could vanish at any point leaving you trapped God knows when. I thought we decided that going through the anomalies was only to be done in emergencies. Besides our last few trips haven't exactly been hugely successful."

"I'm not going to be long," Cutter assured him. "I'll just take a quick peek and be right back. Hell, I'll probably be back before you are. Go on, go and call Lester."

"No," Stephen said again. "Listen to me for once. You're not going through any anomalies. When Connor gets here he can send his little robot pet through instead."

Cutter sighed. "You're being too cautious, Stephen. I just want to have a look. And besides you already said we don't know how long they'll be here for. What if they vanish before Connor can get here?" Stephen opened his mouth to argue again and Cutter cut him off. "Fine. I'll stay here like a good boy. Go and call Lester."

Taking the phone, Stephen set off up the hill, muttering under his breath about asking Lester for hazardous duty pay for the job of keeping Cutter's ass out of danger, because honestly the man seemed to try and put himself in trouble. Pulling up Lester's number, Stephen called him as soon as he was high enough to get a signal. As he waited for the phone to be answered he turned around and looked back into the valley. The empty valley. Cutter had vanished.

He cursed and then apologised as the phone was picked up at exactly the wrong moment. Filling Lester in quickly on what they'd found, he told him what Cutter had done. "I have to go and rescue a missing zoology professor," he said, hurriedly finishing the call. "I'll call you back in a few minutes. But for now, just get a team ready to come and check these out, James. Connor's going to want to investigate." He hung up without saying goodbye and started down the hill as fast as he could safely go. Sometimes he wondered if Cutter wanted to get himself into trouble. Why on earth would he go through an anomaly on his own? He hadn't wanted Cutter to go through at all, but at least he could have gone through with him and watched his back.

He got down to the anomaly and put his pack next to Cutter's. He was just deciding whether he wanted to take the tranquilliser gun or leave that as well when something caught his eye. He looked up and the anomaly flickered. It was starting to fade. "Damn it, Cutter," he swore. Grabbing both packs he dived through the anomaly just as it flickered again.

Landing on soft grass, he looked around. Wherever he was the weather was nice at any rate. He was in the middle of a grassy area and the sun was shining. Ahead of him was an area of trees and in the distance there were cliffs. Looking behind him he watched as the anomaly vanished. Cutter had a lot to answer for.

Talking of Cutter, where was he? "Cutter?" he called loudly. It would be just his luck if Cutter had decided to investigate the other anomaly and he was trapped here alone.

A familiar figure appeared from the edge of the trees and jogged towards him, stopping in confusion when he got closer and looking around the grassy area. "Where's the anomaly?" Cutter asked.

"It vanished," Stephen snapped, getting angry now at Cutter's complete lack of self-preservation. "Like I told you it would before you stupidly came through it. On. Your. Own!" The last words were almost shouted at him.

Cutter cursed. "I just wanted to see if this was the right era."

"And is it?" Stephen asked, looking around. "Since I'm going to be stuck here with you until the anomaly opens again, assuming it even does, I'd like to know when here is."

"Why did you come through if you thought it was unstable?" Cutter asked.

Stephen growled in frustration. "Because someone had to come and watch your stubborn ass and I was the only one around." He threw Cutter's backpack at him. "Take this and let's try and find somewhere to camp while we wait for it to come back."

Cutter looked down, not wanting to meet Stephen's eyes and see the anger and condemnation there. "I'm sorry, Stephen. I should have listened to you. You didn't have to come after me."

"Of course I did!" Stephen said, astonished that Cutter would even think he could leave him here on his own. "You didn't even take your rucksack with you. Look, we're both stuck here now. We have to make the best of it and hope the anomaly reoccurs."

Cutter reached out and took Stephen's arm. "Don't. You didn't have to strand yourself here. I was the one who screwed up. Thank you for coming after me; it means a lot to me."

Stephen smiled, surprised and pleased. Cutter didn't say things like that very often. He seemed to be almost allergic to talking about how he felt, so he must be very touched to have said anything. "Nowhere else I'd rather be, you idiot. It's my job to keep you in one piece. I can't do that if you're stuck here on your own. Now, did you see any sign of human activity on your wanderings? Because I assume bumping into other people would be a bad thing."

"No sign of anyone but as far as I know humans weren't building permanent dwellings in this era so they could be around without us knowing," Cutter said morosely. "Haven't seen the deer either but they could have moved on. Can you check for tracks and see? I'd like to know I've got something right today and that they are actually here."

"Stop sulking, Cutter," Stephen told him. "You screwed up, but believe it or not it happens to everyone. I know it's been a while since you had to admit you'd done anything stupid, but we have more important things to worry about than your guilt." He knelt down and checked the ground, moving off a way and nodding before standing up again. "Looks like an entire herd, so this is probably the right anomaly. Since as far as we know the stag was the only one that came through."

"I don't think I'm always right," Cutter complained.

"Well you certainly act like you do," Stephen shot back. "You've always been an arrogant sod, but you won't listen to anyone else any more. It used to be that I was the one who could rein you in when you went too far, but now you just ignore me. And Connor's too in awe of the great Professor Cutter to call you on your bullshit."

Cutter just sighed and nodded. There wasn't much he could say. Stephen had warned him the anomaly might not be stable but he'd just had to come and look. Even knowing history could be changed very easily, the thought of being able to walk in the past was still a very enticing one and he'd only needed the flimsiest of reasons to come through. Not that he'd intended to be here very long. He was just going to see if he could find any sign of the herd and then come back, but then he'd seen some kind of movement in amongst the trees and his curiosity had led him to investigate. He hadn't found whatever it was he'd seen but by the time Stephen had called his name it had been too late; he'd got them both stuck here. They had no idea if the anomaly would ever appear again or if they could find another one. They could be stuck here for the rest of their lives, just him and a man he'd spent the last few months ignoring, but who had willingly stranded himself here in order to look out for him. He sighed again. It put things in perspective and reminded him of something he'd already known but had forgotten after Helen's revelation. Stephen was loyal to him, for God knows what reason, and he always would be unless Cutter drove him away.

"Come on," Stephen said. "Let's find ourselves somewhere to camp and have lunch. At least this place looks reasonably habitable, it's better than the last holiday spot we got trapped in, right?"

Cutter forced a smile. "No giant bugs this time, so that's an advantage anyway."

"Right," Stephen said, trying to cheer Cutter up. Sure, this was his fault, but moping wasn't going to help and he didn't enjoy making Cutter feel bad. "We'll keep the detectors on so we'll know if it comes back and find a nice spot, near some water if possible, to camp. Maybe it'll be back in a few hours."

"What if it isn't?" Cutter asked seriously. "How long do we wait before starting to look for another one?"

Stephen shrugged. "I don't know but this is a good place so there's no rush. Maybe a month or so. Then we'll decide what to do. Think of it as a vacation. Peace, quiet, good weather, what more do you want?"

"You're taking this really well," Cutter said cautiously. "You should be furious."

"I'm angry that you put yourself in danger again without thinking about it," Stephen told him. "But I chose to come after you. And it could be worse. There's nothing actively trying to kill us, we're not likely to run out of food or water and no we don't know if or when the anomaly will come back but there's no point thinking the worst just yet."

Cutter nodded. "All right. I'm sorry, I should have listened to you but ..." He paused. "Actually, I don't have an excuse. I think I'm just out of the habit of listening to you."

Stephen chuckled. "Well, at least you're admitting it now. Come on, let's explore and hope we don't end up having to eat anything that changes history. For all we know if we catch a rabbit for dinner we'll come back to find humans have wings!"

~*~*~*~

They found a nice grassy clearing inside the woods where they could pitch their tents. It would at least hide their fire from any Stone Age people that were in the area. If they'd camped on the plain that the anomaly was on, the fire would have been visible for miles in almost every direction. They couldn't take that risk. There was a river running through the woods but they didn't want to camp too close to that either in case the local wildlife ran across them. There should be predators around, wolves definitely, maybe other things depending where exactly they were. Neither of them wanted another encounter with a smilodon or any of its relatives.

Putting the detector between them so they would both hear it if it went off, they started pulling out some food for lunch. Stephen leaned back against a tree, gesturing with his apple as he spoke. "You know, this reminds me of that survey you talked me into a few years ago. The one where we spent a week in the woods counting bluebells. I can't believe you convinced me to do that."

Cutter rolled his eyes. "You know it wasn't that boring, you don't have to still be complaining about it five years after the fact and anyway I had a deal with the professor. If I provided extra people to help in her work, she'd lend me some students for one of my projects. This, you're allowed to complain about, pretty much for ever, but I think the bluebells are old news by now. Besides it was a week camping in the woods, in the springtime. It wasn't that bad."

"It rained, pretty much constantly and bluebells are inherently boring anyway," Stephen complained. "And you got students out of it, what did I get?"

"A week in Cornwall, surfing, paid for by me to stop you complaining," Cutter pointed out dryly.

"Oh yes," Stephen said. "I forgot about that. We haven't gone surfing in ages. When we get back we should tell Lester we're taking a week off and just head for the beach. We could take Abby and Connor too. You could teach Connor to windsurf."

"Can you imagine him?" Cutter chuckled. "He's not exactly graceful."

"Most people wouldn't think you were a natural windsurfer either," Stephen pointed out. "Besides you'd enjoy teaching him and he'd love the idea of doing something like that with you."

"Maybe," Cutter said, non-committally. He stretched out on the ground, watching Stephen as he talked. "You really are taking this very well."

"I told you," Stephen said, smiling at him. "Everyone screws up occasionally. I'm sure the anomaly will be back and if it isn't we'll find another one. Considering how much she talks about you, if it comes to it, Helen will probably come looking for you."

"Me?" Cutter asked. "You're the one she keeps visiting."

"Yeah and she flirts with me, but talks about you the entire time," Stephen said. "It's like I'm the way she gets at you for not doing what she wants. Hell she only asked me to go with her because you'd said no. That was why she told you about the affair as well. You rejected her and she was hurt so she lashed out. I told her she was a bitch and rejected her and she just left."

Cutter sighed, reaching out to brush his hand against Stephen's leg, the only part of him he could reach. "I think we both deserve better than Helen, don't you? Why did you do it? Why did you sleep with her in the first place?"

Tossing his apple core into the bushes, Stephen looked down, picking at the dried mud on his jeans. "I was flattered. I was 24 and she was older, smarter, more sophisticated and she was paying me all this attention. I thought I was in love and I know that's no excuse. I knew she was married; I just didn't care. And it lasted a whole two weeks. Then she dumped me. Told me it was just a bit of fun and I should have known that. She made me feel like an idiot. And then the Brazil trip came up and I got to know you and I realised how much she'd played both of us. I should have told you but I didn't want you to think badly of me and once she'd vanished I didn't see the point in hurting you."

Cutter closed his eyes. Two weeks. He'd had all of this heartache over a stupid two week affair that had apparently meant a lot to Stephen, but nothing at all to Helen. He rolled over and opened his eyes again, smiling at Stephen. "How about we actually do what I said we should back at the shopping centre and forget about it? Eight years is a long time to be friends and too much to just throw away because Helen's a bitch."

Stephen smiled almost shyly. "Thank you. I really am sorry about it. I never wanted to hurt you."

"Forget it, Stephen," Cutter said. "You slept with my wife, I got you stranded in the Stone Age… I don't think either of us are in a position to be throwing stones."

Laughing, Stephen slid down the tree so he was stretched out on the grass next to Cutter. "You're a very strange man sometimes."

Cutter grinned, glad that the relationship between them was slowly starting to get back to normal – and it had only taken a couple of near death experiences and the two of them getting stranded in the past together, twice.

~*~*~*~

Lester put the phone down and sighed. Typical Cutter, he was always running off on his own and acting like he was an independent agent. He wondered if Cutter had even thought about the fact that if he got into trouble Stephen would have to go after him. He was always so convinced he was right he didn't consider the consequences. Of course, one of the reasons he was convinced he was always right was that most of the time he was. This was the trouble with having to work with civilian experts instead of just the special forces soldiers he had under his command or other civil servants; they were so damn independent.

He strode out of his office and looked out over the central area of the ARC. "Connor, Abby, my office," he called. "And leave the lizard behind, please." Pausing in his secretary's office he smiled at the young woman. "Could you find Claudia for me please and have Captain Ryan paged as well. And then I need transport to the wilds of Scotland for a full special forces team, plus Connor, Abby, and Claudia. You'll have to pull the exact location from the report Cutter submitted before they left. They'll need accommodation for an undetermined length of time. If Stephen calls back, put him through immediately please. He should have more details, but he's currently off chasing our errant zoologist."

She nodded and immediately picked the phone up to page the Captain. "Leaving when, Sir James?"

"As soon as you have everything arranged," he said. "Thank you, Amanda. Send Claudia and Captain Ryan in as soon as they get here."

He walked back into his office and gestured for Connor and Abby to take a seat. "Stephen called. It seems Cutter was right about the anomaly, in part anyway. There are two, right alongside each other." He held a hand up to forestall the technobabble that he could tell was about to burst out of Connor. "You're going up there to investigate, you can save your theories for when you get there, Connor."

He looked up when Claudia knocked on the door and waved her in. "Claudia. It seems Cutter has found two anomalies in the middle of the Scottish Highlands. Stephen called and asked for a team of special forces to watch over them and track down anything that gets through. I'll need you to go with them and keep unwanted civilians out of the way. Tell people it's a training exercise. Connor take all your toys and try and find out what you can from the anomalies. Abby, you're in charge of keeping Connor out of trouble."

"I'll call Stephen and ask for more information," Claudia said.

"Unfortunately, Cutter has decided to take a trip through the anomaly and Stephen has gone after him so I imagine his phone will be out of range," Lester said dryly. "He said he'd call back once he'd collected Cutter. I'll pass him on to you when he does. Amanda is making the arrangements, so if there's anything you need, Claudia, take it up with her. Connor, Abby, go home and pack."

"Why would he do that?" Claudia asked worriedly. "After all the fuss he made about time changing and that the ARC 'isn't meant to' exist, not to mention the last time he and Stephen went through an anomaly... I think he goes looking for trouble sometimes."

"I hope you don't expect me to know what goes on in Cutter's mind," Lester said, looking at Claudia quizzically. "I'm not sure anyone but Cutter could tell you that."

"I think the Professor's in trouble," Connor whispered to Abby.

She laughed and then grabbed him, pulling him out of the office before Claudia could respond. "Come on, we need to pack and I have to make sure the lizards have enough food for a week or so." She peeked back into Lester's office. "Can Rex stay at the ARC while we're gone? He won't be any trouble. And if we're gone more than a week I need someone to pop in and feed my pets."

"Talk to my secretary about it, Abby," Lester told her. "And ask her to put one of the lab techs on Rex duty, I don't need him causing chaos while you're away."

~*~*~*~

"Look!" Stephen hissed, pulling Cutter down so that he wouldn't startle the animals. "Beavers. Aren't they fantastic?"

Cutter grinned and nodded. "They are. You know they're going to be reintroducing them into Scotland soon?"

"I saw the report on it," Stephen got comfortable so he could keep watching them. "Well, at least we know there are probably fish in the river anyway. So we know what we can catch dinner once we run out of the food we brought with us."

"You know technically, according to the Catholic Church, beaver is fish," Cutter remarked.

Stephen blinked at him and then shook his head. "You know the weirdest stuff sometimes. But we're not hunting beavers."

Cutter chuckled and then quieted when the beaver looked in his direction. When it had gone back to what it was doing he spoke quietly. "I wasn't suggesting you shoot them, I was just telling you. Come on, let's head back to the camp. The sun's starting to go down and we still need to put the tent up."

They crept away from the river, leaving the beavers to their business, and headed back into the woods to find their camp site.

"I know I've been all optimistic about the anomaly reappearing soon," Stephen said. "And I still am, but just in case, I don't think we should use the torches except in an emergency. We don't have any spare batteries for them."

Cutter nodded. "All right. So once we've got the tent up and the fire lit, what do you want to do to pass the time? Because without the torches we're pretty limited."

"We could just talk," Stephen suggested, with a hopeful smile. "See what else is the same or what's changed in our past."

Cutter smiled. "That sounds like fun. Did you still track down that jaguar when we were in Brazil? And did I tell Connor all about it when we met him? Because he was laughing at me about the way I talk about you that first day in the Forest of Dean."

Stephen laughed. "You do tend to go overboard about my tracking abilities." He ducked his head. "It's nice though, hearing you boast about me."

"I don't go overboard," Cutter said. "You're just that good and you're my student so yes, I'm proud of you. Now come on. Let's get the tent up and find some food and then you can tell me all about that first anomaly. Because I noticed you glossed over most of the details when you brought it up before."

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Stephen said, trying to keep a straight face. He should have known Cutter would pick up on that eventually.

"Right," Cutter drawled. "You know that never works on me." As they were talking he was helping Stephen unpack the tent and put it up, a process they'd done a hundred times before and could do without getting in each other's way or even thinking about it by now. Soon the tent was up and Stephen was working on a fire while Cutter laid out the sleeping bags inside the tent and unpacked the things they were going to need for dinner.

"You said Connor brought us some skin, so that means it was a reptile of some kind," Cutter mused. "And you're dodging the issue as much as you can, so that probably means it was a snake of some kind." He grinned and Stephen ducked his head, blushing.

"Okay, yes," he admitted. "It was a snake. A thirty foot long snake. Any normal person would be a little weirded out by a thirty foot snake. Of course I was stuck with a man who thinks raptors are beautiful, an over excited geek with a conspiracy theory, and reptile girl."

Cutter laughed. "So we met Abby then too? It's strange. My first anomaly was the Forest of Dean one only six months ago, but we found it because of Connor and that's where we met Abby. It's like history has a certain path it wants to take and it only allows for so much variation. Things have changed but only within certain limits and even the differences seem to echo each other."

"This time change stuff hurts my head," Stephen complained. "I'm a zoologist not a physicist. Let Connor worry about the science fiction aspects of our lives. You and I need to concentrate on the creatures, we know how to deal with them."

"Come on, I want to hear more," Cutter said. "We headed off to Hyde Park to avoid the Dean and we found the snake? Or did we find the anomaly first?"

"We drove over to the park and Connor showed us where he'd found the skin and it was a lot of skin by the way," Stephen said, grinning ruefully.

Cutter laughed, knowing how much Stephen hated admitting to his fear of snakes. To have it brought up so forcefully in front of Connor must have been embarrassing. "Everyone is afraid of something, Stephen. I know being human doesn't really fit the image you like to project, but you're allowed to have weaknesses like the rest of us mere mortals."

Stephen glared at him and deliberately reached past him to pour the tea he'd been making into mugs and to give himself a moment to decide what to say next. He leaned back against a tree, sipping his tea. "It was embarrassing. We found the anomaly first and we took a peek through it. You wouldn't let Connor come; I'm not sure he's ever forgiven you for that. Lots of sand, lots of heat, very little to tell us when we were. So we came back and this thing suddenly slithered out of the bushes, followed by this little blonde girl." He grinned. "Well, that's what I was calling her in my head at the time. Connor was babbling about Eocene era reptiles while you and Abby were trying to grab this behemoth."

"And what were you doing while I was apparently under the impression I'd become Indiana Jones?" Cutter teased.

"Indiana Jones is scared of snakes," Stephen said with a grin. "Mainly I was trying not to run away." He shrugged. "Part of my brain was telling me to help you before you got yourself killed, but most of it was just yelling oh my God, huge fucking snake!"

Cutter bent over, putting his tea on the ground as he shook with laughter. "Oh, Stephen. It was just your luck we'd run into something like that. I know you didn't run away so what did you do in the end?"

"Abby had a bag with her and she threw it at me. Told me to drop it over the snake's head so it couldn't see." He shook his head. "I didn't really want to get that close but I couldn't tell her that so I threw it and then Connor grabbed it and held it there, pinning the snake down. We were just trying to figure how we were going to get it back through the anomaly when Lester and his men showed up."

"I guess that's an advantage of having our first anomaly be in the centre of London," Cutter said. "Claudia was at the Forest of Dean anomaly with us, but it wasn't until we actually found a huge dinosaur that she could call for help. Luckily Captain Ryan and his men made it there before the gorgonopsid could do too much damage. Although you had a run in with it all on your own in a school first. Fortunately, it was satisfied with running you over and getting you out of its way. If it had decided to stop for lunch you'd have been in a lot of trouble."

"Why was I fighting a dinosaur all on my own?" Stephen asked.

"Sheer bloodymindedness?" Cutter suggested innocently.

Surprised into a laugh, Stephen glared at Cutter. "It's not fair saying things like that about events only you remember. How am I meant to argue with you when I wasn't even there?"

"You're not," Cutter said, grinning at him. "I might actually be able to win some arguments with you this way." He shrugged. "You were, of course, being terribly heroic again. Just like you always are when you get yourself into trouble. Anyway, despite the help of special forces, you were the one that took down the gorgonopsid, with the help of the hilux."

"I ran it over?" Stephen asked. "Well, I guess that's one way to stop it."

"It worked when bullets weren't proving that effective," Cutter told him. "That was when Lester started assembling a team to react to the anomalies, but we were still working for the university, Connor was still just our student, and Abby still had her job at the zoo. Compared to the ARC it was a pretty amateur operation, but we managed."

"Despite what I said earlier, I do miss our office," Stephen admitted. "It was messy and cluttered and admittedly it was too easy for Helen to get into it, but it was ours. The ARC just isn't the same."

Cutter smiled. "It was, wasn't it? It was ours for so long. At least I didn't have to clean it out. I just stepped through an anomaly and it had all been done for me. And with Ryan's death and Claudia's disappearance and what Helen told us ... my office didn't really seem all that important. Actually packing up and leaving must have been really hard though."

"It was," Stephen said. "You really agonised over the decision to leave, but what choice did we have? We couldn't just walk away from this project. We have so much to learn and people were dying, we could try and stop that. I wish Helen would just tell us what she knows though. She's got so much more experience with them, but she doesn't want to let anyone else in on her little secret. She's got her own private playground and no one else is allowed in."

"Let's not talk about Helen again," Cutter said. "Tell me more about the anomalies you've seen in the last eighteen months. I want to know everything."

~*~*~*~

By the time the team were ready to leave it was already late afternoon. Lester had called in some favours and, since the majority of the team was military, they were being flown up to Scotland by the RAF. On the one hand, that was great because it would mean they could be there in a couple of hours instead of taking almost all day to get there. Travelling by train wasn't really an option when you were taking half a dozen fully armed special forces with all their equipment with you so they would have had to go by road and it was at least an ten hour journey provided no one needed to stop. Somehow, Claudia didn't think Connor would let them go without stopping. Unfortunately, on the other hand, it meant Lester was going to be complaining about the expense for at least the next month.

Claudia thought it was probably worth it though because by the time they finally arrived at Brize Norton, ready to leave she was starting to get very worried about what had happened to Nick and Stephen. No one had called back and attempts to call either of their mobile phones just got a network message stating that the phone was out of range or turned off and to try again later. If it had just been Nick she wouldn't have worried so much. He had a tendency to get caught up in his work and forget the more mundane things such as calling people to tell them he was still breathing. Stephen was the reliable one though and if he said he'd call, he would have called if it were at all possible. She was hoping that something had happened to break both of their phones, but she wasn't putting too much money on that idea. Past experience said it was far more likely that something a lot less prosaic and probably involving scales and big teeth had happened to them.

Connor stumbled up the steps of the plane with all his gadgets and Claudia rolled her eyes. How was it that six soldiers could travel with all their kit so much easier and less chaotically than one Connor? Captain Ryan signalled to two of his men to help Connor onto the plane and make sure his gadgets were all stored correctly. He grinned at Claudia.

"You should know by now our geeks never do anything the easy way," he teased. "But they're ours and we wouldn't change them." He winced as a loud crash came from the back of the plane. "Usually," he added.

Striding back towards the door, he held out a hand to help Abby on board and took her bags before she could say anything. "Go and sit down, Abby. I'll store these and find out what Connor just broke. I think Claudia's a little anxious to get under way."

He helped his men get all of Connor's toys strapped down safely, including his little robot thing. "Have we come up with a name for this other than the robot yet?" he asked Connor.

"Professor Cutter hasn't liked any of my suggestions yet," Connor complained.

Ryan laughed. "It's your gadget. Come up with something and tell Cutter he can put up with it." He smiled encouragingly. "He's a zoologist, what does he know about names unless they're in Latin?"

Connor grinned. "I might have to let Abby name it just so she stops complaining about me using her hair dryer in it," he admitted. "If they'd taken it with them, they might not have needed to go through the anomaly in the first place and then Claudia wouldn't be so worried."

"That's probably why Cutter doesn't like it," Ryan suggested. "For all he doesn't want to change history he can't resist running through anomalies at the slightest provocation. Rather him than me though. Anything that keeps me and my men on this side of one of those things is a good idea in my book and as long as that thing's cheaper to replace than we are, Lester would agree."

The team all settled into their seats and strapped themselves in for take off. Claudia closed her eyes and pretended she wasn't about to throw up. She hated flying. At least on British Airways she could go business class and distract herself with a film and a glass of wine. The RAF didn't tend to provide such 'luxuries' and there was nothing to stop her thinking about the millions of parts that went into building a plane and the fact that one of them could break at any time and leave them hanging several thousand feet in the air with no engines and nothing to stop them plunging to earth again. Oh good, that line of thought was making her feel so much better. She tried running through their plan for what to do once they got there instead.

A touch on her hand made her open her eyes and she found Ryan crouched next to her, looking up at her worriedly. He handed her a bottle of water. "Drink some of this," he said softly. "And don't worry about looking bad. Lots of people get airsick in these things. They're a bit loud and rattly, but they always get us where we're going in one piece."

She nodded and sipped the water slowly. "I don't like flying," she admitted.

"You'll be fine," Ryan promised, smiling confidently at her. "Are you staying at the hotel once we get there and coordinating things or are you coming to the valley with us to locate our missing scientists?"

"I'll stay at the hotel for now," she said. "I can run communications from there. Your radios will work in the valley but there wasn't any signal for the mobile phones and if I don't check in regularly James will start worrying. If we have to be in the area for any length of time I might have to camp in the valley with the rest of you." She wrinkled her nose. "I'm not all that keen on camping. I prefer a proper bed to sleep in."

Ryan laughed. "I have a sneaking suspicion you're not as much of a city girl as you make out, Claudia Brown. I bet this wouldn't be the first time you'd ever gone camping, would it?"

She ducked her head and smiled. "You might be right, Ryan. But that doesn't mean I want to repeat the experience unless I have to. Now get back to your seat before people start talking." She smiled more happily at him and he grinned back.

Leaning forwards, he whispered conspiratorially, "I'll let you into a secret, Claudia. They're already talking. Soldiers gossip more than anyone else you've ever met; we just hide it better." He winked and crossed back to where he'd been sitting.

Claudia realised she hadn't thought about the plane or how scared she was the entire time they'd been chatting. She smiled and sipped her water. Just maybe, her job wasn't so bad after all.

 

~*~*~*~

By the time they'd all checked into the hotel it was starting to get dark, but Claudia didn't want to leave it until the next day to look for Cutter and Stephen. Captain Ryan had taken over the dining room of the hotel with his men and his maps and was already planning their rescue mission. While he planned Claudia was trying their phones again, but she still couldn't get an answer.

The plan that Ryan had hastily sketched out was simple. He and the rest of his men would take the car they'd booked out from the motor pool on the base and drive as close to the point the anomalies were at as possible. Hopefully they'd find Cutter's car and maybe even Cutter himself there. If not they'd try and pick up Cutter and Stephen's trail, which shouldn't be too difficult since the two men hadn't been trying to be stealthy, and track them to the valley. They should be able to manage the trip in around two hours, which was about the time it would have taken Stephen and Cutter. They'd be able to do it faster but it was dark and the weather was turning bad as well.

Normally, Ryan wouldn't want to start this kind of mission in this weather but the rain would wash out any tracks that Stephen and Cutter had left and then they wouldn't know what had happened to them unless they tripped over them. While he wouldn't say it out loud, he was starting to get concerned about them as well. They both knew how to camp and Stephen had pretty good survival skills, for a scientist, but the fact that neither of them had tried to contact the ARC was worrying.

"Why can't I go with them?" Connor complained. "They're using my detectors and Ryan said they were going to use my robot so they didn't have to go through the anomaly."

"The three of us will catch them up tomorrow," Claudia said, wondering if this was what it was like to have children, because she'd explained this half a dozen times already and she knew Ryan had told him as well. "If we go with them now we'll just slow them down and they're not going to send anything through the anomaly tonight. It's just too dangerous to go through at night. They're going as far as the valley and hoping to pick up Cutter's trail. If he and Stephen didn't come back through the anomaly then something must have happened to them and running headlong after them could just get them into trouble as well. Tomorrow we'll send your robot through if we have to. For tonight you'll just have to be patient. Abby's managing it."

Connor sighed. "Sorry, Claudia. I'm just worried about the Professor. Stephen would have called if he could and you know how much trouble Cutter can get into when he's not paying attention and none of Stephen's recent trips through anomalies have gone well."

"I know," Claudia said. "I'm worried too, but we have to let Captain Ryan call the shots. Nick and Stephen wouldn't want anyone else getting hurt to rescue them. Besides they're probably fine. They probably just lost their phones or something."

Connor nodded. "Right. I'm sure that's all it is ..." He wandered off to find Abby. She wasn't saying much but he knew she was worried too. Maybe they could try and help each other while they were waiting for Ryan to find Cutter and Stephen.

~*~*~*~

The drive to where they expected to find Cutter's car was quiet. The team were running possible scenarios through their minds. Normally the most likely would be an injury to one or both Stephen or Cutter that meant they couldn't make it back to the car, but considering the anomalies it was more likely that they'd either been attacked by some kind of prehistoric monsters or got stuck in the past for some reason.

Ryan jumped out as soon as they came to a stop and ran over to the car. Examining it he could see it was locked and there was no sign of any of their kit. Using a thin piece of wire he got the front door open and unlocked the boot. It was empty. So the odds were that they hadn't made it this far. Something had happened to them between Stephen's call to Lester and getting back to the car. He shut the door, having to leave it unlocked since Cutter had obviously taken the keys with him. He hoped it didn't get stolen; Cutter would be livid if someone pinched his car because Ryan had left it unlocked.

"Okay, let's get going," he ordered. Quickly he got his men into the order he wanted them to proceed in and they started off. He stayed in the middle as they moved with his two best trackers taking point. Even in the dark and with the rain starting to fall pretty heavily the tracks of the two men were easy to pick out, but Ryan thought they'd probably be gone by the morning so he was satisfied with his decision to come out now and look for them.

The walk to the valley was fairly easy, albeit rather wet and unpleasant now thanks to the weather, but there was no sign of either man. When they got to the stream running through the valley, Ryan could pick up the residual effect of the anomalies in the way his compass was reacting, but there was no trace of the anomalies themselves. "Bugger," he cursed. "See what you can make out from the tracks. Are they on the other side of the anomaly or did they come back before the damn things vanished?"

The two men he'd ordered to follow the tracks examined the ground and then conferred over the marks. "Sorry, sir. It looks like they went through, but there's no evidence they came back. But there's another set of tracks on your side of the stream. Too small to be Cutter or Stephen, lighter too. They go through and back again. Someone's else has been here."

"A woman, you think?" Ryan asked, picking up on the smaller and lighter traits. "Sod it. Who do we know that's female and likes anomalies?" They'd brought satellite phones with them, knowing that normal mobiles wouldn't work. He pulled his out and called Claudia. "It's me," he said. "We're in the valley that the anomalies were supposed to be in. They've gone."

"Gone?" she asked. "Is there any sign of what happened to Nick and Stephen?"

"Looks like they got caught on the wrong side of an anomaly, but we've got even bigger problems. Helen Cutter's been here." If the situation hadn't been so worrying, he'd have laughed at the very unladylike language coming from the normally restrained Claudia. Still, he couldn't blame her; she was the one that was going to have to tell Lester.

~*~*~*~

Stephen woke up pressed against Cutter's back again. He had one arm slung over his waist and he was holding the older man like a teddy bear. He didn't move away immediately though. He liked these mornings when he'd wake up first. It meant he could just watch Cutter and snuggle close without having to explain anything and without Cutter realising how he felt.

When he felt Cutter starting to move he pulled back a little bit, letting him wake up slowly. He smiled when Cutter rolled over onto his back. "Morning, Cutter," he said quietly.

Cutter smiled up at him, content to stay where he was for now. "The detector hasn't made a sound?"

"Not a peep," Stephen said. "It's only been a day. I'm sure it'll reoccur soon." He sighed and pulled back even further. "We should probably get up."

"Why?" Cutter asked, not sure what he was doing but not wanting to move just yet. "It's not like we have anything pressing to do. We have food for another couple of days and we know we can fish and probably trap small animals when we need them and we can't explore too much or we'll go too far from the anomaly. So why rush to get up?"

Stephen hesitated and then lay back down again next to Cutter. "Well, when you put it like that ..." He smiled. If Cutter wanted to stay like this for a while longer he certainly wasn't going to complain. "So you've only been anomaly hunting for six months? Which ones have you seen? Did you have the dodos?"

Cutter grinned. "Yeah. They were brilliant. Well, right up until we discovered they had brain eating parasites anyway."

Stephen chuckled. "That was a bit of a downer. What about the penguins?"

Cutter blinked and turned on his side to face him. "Penguins?"

"Giant penguins," Stephen explained. "Icadyptes salasi. And they're not as much fun as you might think. They have these huge pointy beaks and they're not shy about using them. We had a whole flock ... do you get flocks of penguins? A group anyway came through in the middle of Kew Gardens. We spent two days hunting them down and trying to get them back through the anomaly and as fast as we could get rid of them more came back." He pulled his shirt up and showed Cutter a round scar on his side.

Cutter reached out and touched it, rubbing his thumb over it, pulling his hand back guiltily when Stephen shivered and goosebumps spread out from where Cutter was touching. "Sorry," he muttered.

Stephen cleared his throat and pulled his shirt down again, trying to hide his body's reaction to that touch. "Ryan had one too and most of his men had some kind of penguin related injury as well. Those things were downright nasty buggers."

"Glad we never had to deal with those," Cutter said. "You just seem to have to worst luck around birds. Do you remember that seagull?"

"The one in Blackpool?" Stephen asked, running a hand round the back of his neck. "Can't really forget it. It just wouldn't leave me alone."

Cutter chuckled. "We thought it was after your chips at first, but it wouldn't go away. Kept swooping down at you every time you came out in the open."

"And you just stood there laughing at me," Stephen complained. "You're an annoying sod sometimes, Cutter. Why do I put up with you?"

"No idea," Cutter said cheerfully. "But I'm glad you do." He sat up and stretched, sighing regretfully. "Lying around being lazy isn't as much fun when you're sleeping on the hard ground. My back is killing me. You think that river is safe for swimming in?"

"Don't see why not, as long as we avoid the beavers," Stephen said, watching as Cutter's t-shirt rose up, before eventually looking away and sliding out of his own sleeping bag. "Let's go and find out."

~*~*~*~

They pitched their tents fairly close to where the anomalies had been, although not too close. Even special forces soldiers aren't keen on sleeping right next to something that might start spitting out large carnivorous lizards at any time. Claudia, Connor, and Abby would be out the next day. Although there wasn't a lot they were going to be able to do unless the anomalies reoccurred.

Ryan took the first watch, because he had a bad feeling about this mission. He wasn't sure if it meant anything or if it was just his automatic reaction to the knowledge that Helen was around. That woman gave him the creeps. The way she jumped around from era to era, seemingly indifferent to the changes she might be causing and without ever trying to help them fight the monsters that kept coming through the anomalies into their time. She didn't seem to have any empathy for other humans; it was like she was an outside observer now, just watching with a kind of scientific disinterest to see whether humans would survive. Frankly, she just gave him chills and he couldn't for the life of him figure out how she'd managed to get both Cutter and Stephen to fall in love with her. Sure, she was an attractive woman, but if she were the last woman on earth ... he'd switch teams. He'd rather sleep with Lester than Helen Cutter.

It was almost midnight and approaching the end of his watch when he saw something moving further along the valley. Lifting his radio he called the other man on watch and softly told them what he'd seen, not wanting to alert whoever or whatever it was to his presence. Drawing his gun he crept forwards, sensing his comrade doing the same just off to his left.

As they got closer he could see that the shape was actually a person. They were so focussed on the tents that they hadn't seen the two special forces soldiers creeping up on either side of them. When he was level with the figure he leapt into action, grabbing them and wrestling them to the ground. His comrade had them covered with his gun and when Ryan had the person under control, straddling them and pinning their wrists to the ground he shone a torch down on the two of them, carefully keeping it out of Ryan's eyes.

"Helen Cutter," Ryan spat. "I thought as much. Carter, toss me some of those plastic cuffs. We're keeping her restrained until we can get her back to the ARC." He looked back at Helen. "And since we're staying here until we can get hold of your ex husband and ex lover that could be a long time, so I'd be very careful about pissing people off if I were you."

"Let me go!" she demanded, struggling as Ryan managed to roll her over and fasten her hands behind her back.

"Shut up," Ryan ordered. "Tomorrow you can tell us exactly what you're doing here and what you know about Cutter and Stephen's disappearances, but until then just be quiet because unlike either of them I don't care abut your theories or anything else you have to say." He jerked her upright and the two soldiers marched her back to the camp.

He woke the next two men up to take watch and assigned one of them to guard Helen. Then he finally made his way to his tent, hoping to be able to get a few hours sleep at least.

~*~*~*~

They decided that in case the anomaly came back they would pack their tent up and take their packs with them when they went down to the river. That way if the detector warned them of the anomaly opening up again they would just need to get dressed and make a run for it through the woods. They didn't want to risk leaving anything from the twenty-first century back in the Stone Age. Even if they managed to get away without changing history, the remnants of a tent would certainly confuse the hell out of any archaeologists who came across them and they really didn't want to have to explain any journal articles on the subject to Lester.

They walked along the river a little way, not wanting to scare the beavers, and found a small lake. Leaving their packs on the side of the lake they both stripped off and slid into the cool water.

"Either the climate is warmer here or this isn't the same time of the year as when we left," Stephen commented. "If we tried swimming in the Highlands at this time of year the water certainly wouldn't be as nice as this."

Cutter chuckled. "And you should know. Do you remember that stream you fell into the first time we went hiking in Scotland?"

"You mean the stream you pushed me into?" Stephen asked. He ducked his head under the water and then slicked his wet hair back.

As he stood back up, the water cascaded over his back and Cutter found himself watching Stephen again and liking what he saw. He turned away slightly, trying not to blush. No matter how close they skirted to the line, watching your naked, male friend was definitely well over it.

"I didn't push you," he said. "You slipped and fell. You're just too stubborn to admit that you're ever anything less than graceful."

"You pushed me!" Stephen said. "Maybe it was different in your history. But I was crossing the stepping stones and you were right behind me and you pushed me into the water. Just because I was suggesting that you might have got us slightly lost."

"I wasn't lost and you fell," Cutter insisted. He grinned, the all too familiar joking around making him feel more light-hearted than he had since he'd come back from the Permian with Helen. He flicked water at Stephen and laughed out loud at the shock on his face.

"That means war," Stephen threatened, trying not to laugh. He launched himself at Cutter and knocked him off his feet and under the water.

When Cutter surfaced again, spluttering and brushing the water out of his eyes he glared at Stephen. "Oh, you are in so much trouble."

Stephen backed off slightly. "Well, if you think you can catch me, Cutter ..." He couldn't keep the grin off his face. It was just like old times, messing around and teasing each other. The fact that Cutter was naked and wet didn't hurt either and while the water was pleasantly cool rather than cold meant he probably wasn't going to embarrass himself with an inappropriate erection.

The water fight went on for about half an hour before Cutter pleaded exhaustion. "Come on, let's get out," he said. "I'm getting too old for this."

"You're not old," Stephen told him with a smile. "Let's get dry and go for a walk. We have to stay fairly close to the anomalies but I wouldn't mind doing a bit of exploring. And come tomorrow we might need to start finding our own food anyway so we might as well get an idea of what we can catch or pick."

Cutter nodded. "Okay, that sounds like a good idea. We can look for any signs of people in the area as well. I don't want to run into a wandering tribe. Even if they're friendly that would probably be a disaster and if they're not ... well as much as I don't want to do anything to change history I don't want either of us to get hurt either."

Stephen pulled himself out of the lake and started drying himself off with his overshirt. "At least it's warm enough to just wander around in our t-shirts."

Cutter just nodded, his eyes fixed on Stephen's back and ass as he stood there. He shook his head and climbed out, turning his back on Stephen so he could dry himself off and get dressed. Because he had his back to him he didn't notice Stephen watching him with a speculative expression.

Stephen had caught Cutter just before he looked away, although Cutter hadn't realised. He wondered whether it was worth saying or doing anything about it. They were only just rebuilding their friendship and he wasn't sure how shaky the ground they were on already was, but Cutter had definitely been looking at him with interest. He shrugged. He'd worry about it later, it wasn't worth pushing things right now.

"Come on," he said, sitting down to lace his boots up. "Let's get going and see what else we can find. I'm not sure what other animals you got in this period, are you?"

"Not really," Cutter admitted. "The Stone Age isn't exactly my area of expertise. There should be wolves of some kind although I don't know if there are any in this area." He paused. "Mainly because I don't know where this area is." He grinned at Stephen.

"Haven't seen anything yet to say that it isn't Britain. Maybe not as far north as we were though," Stephen suggested. "Most mammals that we know should be around if this is England. No rabbits or cats though."

"You're right," Cutter said. "Damn, no chance of rabbit stew then," he joked.

"Thank goodness for that," Stephen complained. "I don't like rabbit. Fish will be all right though and there should be other mammals. I don't like the idea of setting traps though and we can hardly shoot them with the tranq gun if we want to eat them."

"Can you imagine trying to explain that to Lester if he had to send a team through the anomaly to rescue us and we'd managed to drug ourselves?" Cutter said.

Stephen laughed. "Let's prove to him that we may not be special forces but we do have at least a basic level of survival skills and we're not complete idiots."

"I got us trapped in the Stone Age," Cutter pointed out. "I don't think I have much chance of convincing him I'm not an idiot right now."

Reaching out to slap his back gently, Stephen grinned at him. "Oh come on, everyone's allowed to make the occasional mistake."

~*~*~*~

"What do we do about giving the prisoner breakfast?" one of Ryan's men asked. "She can't eat with her hands tied."

"If I didn't think she'd bite someone I'd say leaver her tied and feed her," Ryan grumbled. He really didn't like Helen, every time she showed up trouble followed and he hadn't forgiven her for the dodo thing yet. "Untie her and let her eat but keep a gun trained on her and if she tries to run shoot her. Make it somewhere non fatal, I want to find out what she knows."

He pulled his phone out and called Claudia. She'd need to tell Lester about Helen. "Claudia, this is Ryan," he called.

"Ryan? Is something wrong?" she asked.

"Everything's fine," he promised. "And good morning to you, Claudia. I hope you slept well."

She laughed. "Thank you but you didn't just call up to ask how I slept."

"No, I didn't," he told her, smiling. "We ran into Helen last night. She's all gift wrapped and waiting for you to arrive."

"You do come up with the most thoughtful presents, Captain Ryan," Claudia teased. "I'll call Lester and get him to send some more men so they can escort her back to London. After we've found out what she knows about Nick and Stephen's disappearance." Her voice grew colder. "And if you can't get it out of her, let Abby and I have a turn. I guarantee we'll make her talk."

Ryan shook his head. "We'll manage. It's not getting her to talk that's the problem, it's knowing if we can believe anything she says," he said. "Bring the rest of the tents and the supplies we left at the hotel, when you come, please. We might be here a while. I'll send some of my men back to meet you at the car so they can carry it."

"You're such a gentleman," Claudia joked again. "We'll leave as soon as we have everything in the car. And be careful. I don't trust Helen."

"Don't worry about us," Ryan said. "We don't trust her either and I don't think any of my men would have a problem shooting her if they had to."

"Be careful anyway," Claudia said. "I wouldn't want anything to happen to you, Tom."

He smiled again. Claudia's tone might even make up for having to deal with Helen. "I promise. You be careful as well and I'll see you in a few hours." He hung up and put the phone away, rolling his eyes when he realised he was being watched by a couple of his men. "Get back to work," he told them. "You're not being paid to stand around grinning like loons."

They hurried away to get back to their assigned tasks, but Ryan knew they were going to take the piss about Claudia at every opportunity, although not where she could hear. They did have some tact after all. He wondered if Abby had any idea what Claudia's favourite restaurant was. Then he straightened up and got back to work. He had a job to do, he could think about Claudia later.

~*~*~*~

The sun was starting to go down when they finally made it back to their camp site. They'd explored the local area thoroughly and hadn't found any trace of human activity. Although they had come across a surprised family of hares and had to make a long detour around a herd of aurochs. Nick swore they were safe to be around but they were a bit big for Stephen's peace of mind. He didn't want to get accidentally squashed by a herd of friendly but scared prehistoric cows. As a way to get injured he thought that was probably one of the more embarrassing things that could happen to him in his job.

Pitching the tents and building the fire was an exercise in seamless teamwork. They'd done this so many times before it was easy to know exactly what the other person wanted without having to say a word. While Cutter handled heating the evening meal up over the fire and making tea, Stephen rummaged through his rucksack and pulled out the bottle of whisky he'd promised him earlier.

"Thought we might put some of this in the tea," he suggested with a grin. "And then later we can dispense with the tea altogether. It's been far too long since I got you drunk."

Cutter chuckled. "Oh why not. What are the odds the bloody thing will reappear while we're sloshed?"

"Don't say things like that!" Stephen complained. "You'll jinx us." He poured a hefty slug of the whisky in each mug of tea and watched as Cutter dished up the stew. "Better spend tomorrow afternoon fishing if we want to eat." He grinned. "Sounds like a good way to spend the day when you're hungover. Stretch out in the sun and see what we can catch."

Cutter laughed. "This really is beginning to feel like a holiday. I hope the others aren't too worried about us though."

"I'm sure they're fine," Stephen said. "Besides if this anomaly works like the one in the Forest of Dean we might even get back before we left." He paused. "Actually, I hope it doesn't that would be horribly confusing."

Cutter waved his hand dismissively. "Let's not worry about it 'til it happens. For all we know you catching us some dinner will change the entire course of history anyway."

"Nice that you're still feeling optimistic about everything then," Stephen said dryly. "This is why I need to get you drunk."

"If you say so," Cutter said. He put the bowl down when he finished and wrapped his hands around the mug of tea, the heat feeling good as the cool evening began to take the place of the heat of the day. "It's been ages since we went to the pub together."

"We should start doing that again," Stephen said, smiling at him hopefully. "Can't get drunk really. I don't think chasing a T-Rex while hungover would be all that pleasant."

"Not drunk then, just a little bit tipsy," Cutter suggested. "It'll be fun. We can call it a team bonding exercise. We could even drag Connor and Abby along occasionally."

"Let's get all this stuff packed away and take the whisky to bed with us," Stephen suggested. "It'll be just like old times."

Once they were both tucked into their sleeping bags, Cutter turned off the torch so they were managing by touch only. Since they were also slowly getting drunk this was naturally going to lead to accidents. While swinging his mug around to make a point Cutter managed to splash whisky over both of them.

He fell back onto his sleeping bag, giggling heavily. "Sorry, Stephen," he choked out.

"Waste of good whisky," Stephen told him, grinning and propping himself up on one arm so he could vaguely make out the laughing man next to him. He hadn't seen Cutter like this for years, it was brilliant. He'd missed how silly and giggly Cutter would get when he'd had a skin full. "Come on, sit up again, I'll pour you another one."

"I think I've had enough," Cutter admitted, struggling to roll onto his side where he could look at Stephen. "Thanks for this. I really needed it."

Stephen smiled. "We needed it." He grabbed a tissue from his bag and reached out to brush it over Cutter's skin, trying to mop up as much of the spilt whisky as he could find by touch.

"I mean it," Cutter said, his words slightly slurred. "Thank you." He tilted his head, barely able to make out Stephen's form in the darkness of the tent. Leaning forward he wrapped an arm clumsily around Stephen's shoulders and pulled him close, hugging him drunkenly.

Surprised by the sudden gesture, although he supposed he shouldn't be, Cutter always got a lot more touchy feely when he was drunk, Stephen fell forwards. He put one hand on the ground to steady himself and looped the other around Cutter's neck, grinning back at him. "Not like this is a hardship," he pointed out.

Moving the bottle out of the way, Stephen wriggled so that their sleeping bags were pushed up against one another and he and Cutter could lay down. He snuggled closer, happy that he could do this while awake for once and too drunk to worry about Cutter's possible reaction to it.

Cutter smiled and nuzzled Stephen's neck, rubbing his stubble against it and making Stephen gasp. He pulled him even closer and stretched his neck to kiss him sloppily.

Stephen hesitated and then kissed him back hungrily, holding his head in place and plundering his mouth like he'd never get another chance. After exchanging lazy, sloppy kisses for a while he fumbled with the zip on Cutter's sleeping bag and reached inside, squeezing the bulge in his underwear.

Cutter groaned and arched into Stephen's touch. He wasn't entirely sure what they were doing but this felt far too good to stop it. It had been a long time since he'd been touched by anyone's hand but his own.

Stephen pulled back and yanked the zip on his own bag down so he could get even closer to Cutter. He kept stroking and squeezing Cutter's hard cock through the thin fabric of his boxer shorts. He pressed his own cock against Cutter's leg. He was vaguely aware at the back of his mind that he was humping Cutter's thigh like a dog in heat but anything else would require him stopping and moving and they were both too far gone for that.

He stroked Cutter's cock roughly, smugly pleased at the hoarse groans he was pulling from the other man. He felt Cutter go stiff beneath him and then he cried out softly. Thrusting a couple more times against his thigh Stephen muffled his own cry of passion in Cutter's shoulder.

They lay like that for a few moments, breathing heavily and snuggling. Then Cutter shifted uncomfortably before pulling Stephen to lie with his head on his shoulder, wrapping an arm around the younger man to keep him there. He tugged Stephen's sleeping bag so it was sort of covering them and then started snoring.

Stephen chuckled and managed to move them so he wasn't laying on the zip of Cutter's sleeping bag any more and so that his bag was actually open and spread across them instead of only partway open and laying in more of a heap like Cutter had left it. He wasn't sure how the next morning was going to play out but he was drunk enough that he didn't care and he was comfortably snuggled up against Cutter, so he closed his eyes and followed Cutter into a dreamless sleep.

~*~*~*~

Claudia put the phone down and went in search of Connor and Abby to tell them the news. Connor was in the dining room having what looked to be his third go at the buffet. She rolled her eyes; it was annoying the way men Connor's age could do that and still remain skinny. When he was Connor's age she'd sworn her brother could eat his own bodyweight in one sitting and never gain an ounce.

"Connor, when you're finished here we need to get all the supplies down to the car. Ryan says that we might be waiting around for a while to see if the anomaly comes back."

He nodded and grinned. "Nearly done," he promised, his voice muffled by the mouthful of bacon he had just shovelled in there. "Is there any sign of Stephen and the Professor?"

"Nothing knew," she told him. "It looks like Nick went through the anomaly like we knew and Stephen followed him and then it closed before they could get back again. But Ryan's just captured everyone's favourite time traveller so with any luck Helen will know how to get them back. And she must have a vested interest in helping Cutter and Stephen surely?"

"She left Stephen to die after the millipede poisoned him," Connor said. "But she'd probably help the Professor. She was really mad at him for not wanting to come with her into the past, but she still seemed to want him back. You don't lash out at people you don't care about."

Claudia smiled, sometimes Connor could be amazingly astute. "Do you know where Abby is? I want to tell her we need to leave."

"She's still in her room," Connor said. "She grabbed a yoghurt and an apple and took it back with her. She said something about wanting to take advantage of the hot water before we have to sleep outside and wash in a stream." He shrugged. "If the Professor and Stephen weren't missing, I think camping out with the soldiers would be quite fun."

Claudia sighed and rolled her eyes. "If you say so."

"Well, at least Captain Ryan will be there, right? He'll look after you," Connor said innocently.

He missed the pointed look she sent his way because he'd turned back to his breakfast. Claudia wasn't sure if he was implying something or not, with Connor you could never tell. As perceptive as he could occasionally be, he could also miss the blatantly obvious, like exactly why Abby couldn't stand his girlfriend. Deciding this was one of those cases where discretion was the better part of valour, she turned to go and look for Abby. At least Ryan could order his men not to bug him. She couldn't do that with Connor and even if she could, he'd probably ignore her. She smiled; still he was only teasing her because he liked her so she didn't really mind. It was almost like having her younger brother around again, only Connor was geekier.

 

She went upstairs and knocked on Abby's door but didn't get an answer. She could hear the shower going so she assumed Abby was doing what she said she was and taking a long hot shower. Claudia wished she had time to do the same but she still needed to call Lester about Helen. She wasn't looking forward to making that call.

Locking herself in her own room she picked the phone up. There was no point putting this off any longer. She dialled Lester's extension and waited for Amanda to put her through.

"James, we have a problem," she told him.

"Oh good lord, what have they done now?" he asked, grumpily.

"They're still missing," she said. "Captain Ryan says they went through the anomaly according to their tracks but they didn't come out again and the anomalies have both vanished now."

"Do we have any idea if or when the anomalies will be back?" Lester asked. "I'm loathe to just abandon the site but I can't have my entire team sitting around doing nothing. There will be other anomalies, other creatures. I need you back here."

"No, but we do have one lead," Claudia said. "Helen Cutter's been here and last night Captain Ryan's men apprehended her. We're going to find out what she knows. I doubt her appearance is coincidental."

"Well, isn't she just the definition of a bad penny?" Lester complained. "Fine. I'll send you some more men to watch the anomaly site and you can interrogate Helen, but you only have one week. After that I'll keep a revolving guard on the anomaly site, but I'll need you and the junior monster hunters back here. Captain Ryan and his men will return with you. They're too experienced for me to leave them there."

Claudia sighed. She wanted to keep everyone here until Nick and Stephen were safely home, but intellectually she knew James was right. There would be other anomalies and creatures and if they were all up here, people would be put at risk needlessly. "Understood, James. I'm keeping the rooms at the hotel but we're all moving out to the valley. The coordinates we had from Stephen's call we spot on so you should send the team there. Ryan says it's a mobile dead spot so we'll be using the satellite phone system to keep in contact."

"Be careful," Lester warned her. "I don't want to lose anyone else and I don't trust Helen not to try and mislead you."

"You almost sound like you care, James," she teased. "I'll pretend you're just worried about ending up short staffed." She smiled. She really did like her snarky boss. He wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty when he needed to and while he was a pain in the ass to work for sometimes she knew he did everything he could to make sure they had the budget and the men they needed to do their jobs safely. "I'll call you some time later today," she promised. "We're leaving as soon as the car is packed."

"Thank you, Claudia," he said. "Keep me informed."

She hung up the phone and grabbed her bag, taking it down to the car and bumping into Connor on the way. "Get your things, Connor and then help me load the supplies into the car. We need to get going."

~*~*~*~

Cutter woke up first the next morning. Stephen was snuggled up against him as normal, but for some reason they were both lying on his sleeping bag, with Stephen's draped over the top of them. He shifted and realised his boxers were uncomfortable and an image flashed through his mind, reminding him exactly why. He blushed. Had he really let Stephen give him a drunken hand job?

His cock twitched at the memory. It had been fantastic though and he thought Stephen had come too, rubbing up against him frantically as he'd stroked him. He smiled softly, liking the idea that he could have that much of an effect on the younger man.

Looking down at the dark head resting on his shoulder in the dim early morning light, he had to fight the urge to kiss his hair. He'd always known Stephen was an attractive man but he was surprised at how affectionate and protective he was feeling towards him. The way Stephen had reacted to his rather sloppy and drunken pass last night had made him think that maybe Stephen had been thinking about him as more than a friend for a while now.

Stephen shifted slightly and Cutter tightened his hold on him, not wanting him to move away. He knew that he had two options this morning. He could pretend nothing had happened and forget all about last night. Stephen would go along with whatever he did he was sure of it. Or he could stay snuggled up against Stephen and they could actually talk. He closed his eyes again, maybe after some painkillers and some breakfast.

Stephen opened his eyes without moving any of the rest of him. Cutter was still holding him close like he had been when they fell asleep. He wondered if he could extricate himself without waking Cutter up. If he was really lucky Cutter wouldn't even remember what had happened last night after they started drinking. He couldn't believe he'd responded to Cutter's drunken kiss. The man had been drunk, he hadn't known what he was doing and Stephen had not only responded eagerly he'd started humping him like some kind of slut, taking advantage of his inebriated condition to fulfil one of his own fantasies and touch him.

He bit back a groan and tried to slide out from under Cutter's arm, convinced the only way their friendship could possibly survive what had happened was if they both pretended it hadn't. Cutter tightened his hold on him again and opened his eyes, looking down into Stephen's wide eyed expression.

Stephen swallowed hard; Cutter was awake. This wasn't good. He forced a smile onto his face. "Morning," he croaked.

Cutter smiled fondly at him. "Morning. How's your head this morning?"

"Um, it's okay," Stephen told him, wriggling a little and making Cutter loosen his hold. "I think there's some pain killers in the first aid kit." Maybe if he just didn't talk about last night, Cutter would take his cue from him and do the same.

"Stephen," Cutter said cautiously. "Are you just going to pretend nothing happened last night?"

Apparently he just wasn't that lucky or maybe Cutter was just too stubborn to pick up on his hints. He looked away from Cutter. "I'm sorry. You were drunk. I shouldn't have grabbed you like that." His voice was soft and pleading, desperate for Cutter to believe him and forgive him yet again. "I promise, it won't happen again." He kept his eyes focussed on Cutter's chest, waiting to see what he'd say.

Cutter blinked. He hadn't expected Stephen to be feeling guilty about it. He hadn't exactly been sober, but he'd known what he was doing and he could have easily stopped Stephen if he'd wanted to. "What if I want it to happen again?" he asked, quietly. Nudging Stephen's face up so he could look him in the eye he slowly leaned closer, brushing his lips gently across Stephen's. He didn't want to pressurise him into anything, but he needed to stop Stephen feeling bad about it.

Stephen looked at him in shock. "What?"

Cutter smiled slowly. "I said what if I want it to happen again? I was drunk but I wasn't so far gone I didn't know what I was doing and you were as drunk as I was. Do you want to forget about it or do you want to talk and maybe do it again?" He waited nervously, hoping he was right and that they both wanted the same thing.

Stephen smiled slowly. He leaned forwards and kissed Cutter gently, smiling into the kiss when Cutter pulled him even closer. "Yes, I want to do it again. I've wanted you for a long time, but you never showed any interest in me or any man and then after Helen's revelation I thought I'd be lucky to have you back as a friend, let alone anything else."

Cutter kissed him again and then pulled back. "All right then, let's find some painkillers, make breakfast, and then head down to the river again. We need to wash up and do some laundry after last night and then we can spend the rest of the day trying to catch some dinner and maybe exploring this a bit more. How does that sound?"

"Getting you wet and naked again sounds good," Stephen teased. "I could barely keep my eyes off of you yesterday."

Cutter laughed happily. "Fine, come on then. You start breakfast while I find the drugs and then we can go and play."

~*~*~*~

When Claudia parked the car next to Cutter's and the one Ryan had been using, there were already three soldiers there waiting for her. She got out of the car, closely followed by Abby and Connor.

"Sergeant Carter," she said with a smile, before turning to the others. "And I'm really sorry but I don't know your names."

"Privates Jackson and Holt, ma'am," Sergeant Carter told her. "Captain Ryan said we were to carry all the supplies you'd brought. I think if you get there carrying even a backpack, we might be in trouble." He grinned. "Same for Miss Maitland."

"What about me?" Connor complained.

"You get to carry that robotic creature you made," Carter told him with a grin. "You can leave the rest to us, we're used to it. Just watch where you're going and don't trip over anything, kid."

Connor carefully unloaded the robot. "You know he still needs a name," he said thoughtfully.

"What about James?" Abby suggested with a grin.

Claudia giggled and nodded. "Oh yes. I think it suits him."

"Lester would kill me!" Connor squeaked.

"I'll protect you from the big bad civil servant," Abby teased. "Go on, James sounds good and he really does need a name."

"Even Nick can't complain about something as straightforward as James," Claudia pointed out.

Carter grinned. "Either that or Tom ... but the Captain's armed so maybe you'd better stick with James."

Together they unloaded the car, the soldiers taking the bulk of the supplies. Abby insisted on carrying her own rucksack and Claudia managed to convince them to give her one of the lighter bags, and then they were off.

It took them nearly three hours to reach the soldiers' camp site. Although all three of the civilians were fit and healthy none of them were really used to hiking long distances, especially Claudia, and they just couldn't keep up with the pace the soldiers had wanted to set. They hadn't complained, merely slowed until Abby, Claudia, and Connor could keep up without having to push themselves too hard.

Ryan looked up and smiled as they finally came into view. He hadn't been too worried about Connor and Abby. They might not be used to hiking but they spent a lot of their time chasing or being chased by dinosaurs. He knew they could manage the walk. Claudia was just a civil servant though. She spent her time organising things from the ARC and talking to the press, he'd been worried the walk would be too much for her, but she seemed to have managed quite well.

He walked over to greet them. "Lovely morning for a hike, isn't it?" he said. "Lunch will be ready in about an hour so if you want to sort yourselves out. The boys will put up the tents for you."

"Has Helen said anything?" Claudia asked worriedly.

"Nothing useful," Ryan said darkly. "But she did hint that she came up here because of something Stephen told her. She's travelled through one of the anomalies hoping to catch them by surprise but then the anomalies vanished again. I don't think she was expecting Cutter and Stephen to have travelled through them. She's in a foul mood."

"Can I talk to her?" Claudia asked.

"Leave it for now," Ryan said. "I'll have another go after lunch. I think she knows more about these anomalies than she's telling us and if she was hanging around then she must be expecting them to come back."

"Did you say Stephen told her about the anomalies?" Abby asked suddenly.

"That's what she implied," Ryan said. "Why?"

"Well, when the hell did she speak to Stephen?" Abby asked, outraged. "I would think that after she told everyone he'd been screwing her back when he was a student, she would be the last person he wanted to be seen with? Is he trying to torpedo his friendship with Cutter?"

"I'm sure she must have sought him out ..." Ryan defended him.

"God, men!" Abby snorted. "You're all ridiculous. Don't try and defend him. He's thinking with his dick, just like every other man on the planet. What is it about that woman that makes her so damn irresistible?"

"I... don't think she's irresistible," Connor said hesitantly.

"Oh, I wasn't talking about you!" Abby said. "I just meant, you know, men."

Connor blinked, not sure what to say to that. Ryan ducked his head, hiding a grin and Claudia put her hand over her mouth and muffled a laugh.

"Oh, you know what I meant," Abby said, waving her hand dismissively. She sighed. "Where's my tent, Ryan?"

He cleared his throat. "Carter will show you. You're sharing with Claudia. Connor, you're sharing with me. I would have a tent to myself but we have to keep Helen somewhere and unfortunately I can't justify leaving her out in the cold. Much as I'd like to."

"See!" Connor said, as he headed off after Carter and the women to find his tent. "Ryan doesn't like her either. I guess that means he's not a man either ..."

Ryan grinned again as Connor's voice faded into the distance. You had to give the geeks their due, life was never boring around them.

~*~*~*~

This time the walk down to the water was full of not quite accidental touches and soft teasing. Stephen couldn't resist glancing over at Cutter every few seconds. He'd wanted the older man for so long that now he finally had him he could barely believe it was really happening. When they got there they left their packs under a large tree and stripped off.

Cutter was watching Stephen openly as he got undressed. He hadn't been able to stare before in case Stephen caught him, but now he could watch as much as he liked.

"You're staring," Stephen said quietly.

"Do you mind?" Cutter asked him, smiling. "I love watching you, even dressed you have a way of moving that makes people look. Naked you're spectacular." He grinned. "You can't blame me for wanting to watch."

Stephen smiled in pleasure. He wasn't overly vain, no matter what some people might think, but he did like to look good and knowing that Cutter was enjoying watching him made his cock twitch. "Grab the dirty laundry out of my bag and we'll wash them," he said. "Then you can watch me do whatever you want." He smiled hopefully. Although Cutter had said he wanted to do it again he hadn't actually made any concrete suggestions as to what he wanted to do or when. Stephen wasn't sure if this was meant to be occasional casual sex as an addition to their friendship or an actual relationship.

Cutter ducked his head and smiled. He really wasn't very good at talking about what he wanted, something that had always driven Helen nuts. Not that she was particularly keen in going out of her way to fulfil his needs as long as hers were met, but the fact that he really wasn't any better at talking about sex than he was about emotions was one of the things they used to fight about. Well, she'd fight, he'd just stand there and let her.

Stephen sighed. It didn't look like Cutter was going to tell him what was going on, despite having said this morning that they needed to talk. He didn't push him though, just took his dirty underwear and slipped into the water. A soft splash behind him told him that Cutter had followed suit

He didn't dare look up until he was ready to get out and hang the clothing over a branch. Being this close to a wet and naked Cutter would be far too much of a temptation. When he finally did, Cutter was looking at him again. "I'm going to have to get used to you watching, am I?"

Blushing a little, Cutter ducked his head. "Maybe. I'll try not to do it so much when we get home and other people can see," he offered.

"I don't mind," Stephen said, stalking towards Cutter and taking the laundry out of his hands. He tossed it over a convenient tree branch and then rested his hands on Cutter's hips. "I can hide this if you want to though; I have plenty of practice at not letting people see how I feel about you."

Cutter smiled in surprise and pulled him down for a long, slow kiss. "I don't want to advertise it; it's no one's business but ours, but I'm not going to go out of my way to hide it either. I'm not ashamed of how I feel."

"How do you feel?" Stephen asked. "I know you don't like talking about your feelings and I'm not asking for a long speech here, just some idea if this is a relationship or just sex or something in between."

"Isn't that something we should decide together?" Cutter asked. He smiled and brushed Stephen's cheek gently. "You're my closest friend, Stephen, even after everything and I ... care about you a great deal. And I'm very attracted to you." He smiled self-deprecatingly. "So I guess that would be a relationship."

Stephen chuckled and nodded. "I guess it would. Don't worry, I'm not going to get all sappy on you now."

"I really am awful at this sort of thing," Cutter admitted.

Pulling him closer again, Stephen kissed him. "I've known you for nearly ten years now, I know what you're like."

Cutter smiled slowly. "You do, don't you? You have no idea how good that feels after the last couple of months. Nothing is quite the same as I remember it, even Connor and Abby are different. But you're the same, despite the changes in our personal history, despite Helen's revelation, you're still you and you know me."

"You're different in some ways," Stephen said. "But I think mostly the changes are because of Helen and because of the changes you've seen. You're the same person, it's the last couple of months that have changed you, not whatever happened to the time line. Does that make sense?"

Cutter moved closer, resting his head on Stephen's shoulder. He was aware of their naked bodies being pressed together but right now he needed this feeling of closeness more than he needed sex. "Everything can change in just a second and there's no way for us to prevent it," he said hoarsely. "Even when we do everything we can not to change the past we can't always help it. Like with the raptors, three of them came through but only one survived and we did everything in our power to get them back alive. It's frightening to know how easily we can change history and we wouldn't even know it. People can just blink out of existence as if they were never born. It's bad enough that we lost Claudia, what if it had been Connor or Abby or you?"

"But it wasn't," Stephen assured him. "And we're doing everything we can not to change history. I'm not going to say that we'll never experience it again, but there's nothing we can do about it and you'll drive yourself crazy if you keep thinking about it. Yes we might change the past, but you might as well say that we could get in a car crash so you'll stay at home and never go out. You don't worry about that, do you? And really it's far more likely than changing the past."

"Especially with you driving," Cutter joked, trying to lighten the mood again. "You're right. I think I just needed to say it out loud to someone. All we can do is our best."

Stephen wrapped his arms around him and held him tightly. "You don't need to deal with stuff on your own, you know? You should talk to someone when you're this tense. I can feel how stressed you are." He kissed Cutter's hair gently. "You really are an awkward man sometimes. Good job I love you anyway."

Cutter smiled delightedly at the words. "It is, isn't it?" He leaned up and kissed Stephen slowly, taking the time to savour the kiss and learn what made Stephen moan and kiss him harder. He pushed him towards the shore slightly. "Get one of the sleeping bags out and we can continue this while we wait for the fish to come back after our swim," he suggested.

Stephen grinned and practically jumped out of the water, spreading his sleeping bag out on the bank, under the tree. He stretched out on it and beckoned to Cutter seductively. "Come over here and let me get rid of some of that tension I could feel."

Stephen held out a hand and Cutter took it, lying down next to him. "You know you don't have to do anything," Cutter said.

"Hush, I want to. Now roll over and let me give you a massage," Stephen told him. "You need to relax."

Cutter did as he was told, pillowing his head on his arms, turning it to one side so he could smile at Stephen. "I'm glad I decided to bring you with me," he said. "I've missed being able to talk to you."

Stephen smiled happily. "I thought Lester made you bring me."

"It's not important who said what," Cutter said, hiding a grin. "The important thing is this was a good idea of mine. Well, other than the bit where we got stuck here, although, as long as we don't come back to a completely different world I'm happy to take credit for this too."

Laughing, Stephen straddled his thighs. "You are incorrigible." He put his hands flat on Cutter's back, feeling the tense muscles in his shoulders and neck, and started slowly rubbing them, digging his thumbs in slightly and massaging the knots out of them.

Cutter groaned. "Oh, that feels good Stephen. I hadn't realised how tense I felt until you started."

Stephen smiled and leaned down to press a gentle kiss to the top of Cutter's back. He slowly worked his way down his back, trailing kisses along his spine as he stroked his hands over the smooth skin. Moving to the side, he stretched out next to Cutter. "Roll over, love," he said quietly.

Cutter opened his eyes and rolled onto his side, facing Stephen. Reaching out to stroke Stephen's cheek, he leaned forwards and kissed him. He slid his hand around to the back of Stephen's neck and pulled him closer, bringing their dicks into contact and making them both groan into the kiss.

Stephen rolled onto his back and pulled Cutter with him, holding him by the hips again and arching up against him. "Christ, you turn me on so much, Nick," he moaned.

Cutter kissed him again. "That's the first time you've called me Nick," he said.

Stephen shrugged. "Well, I thought it was a bit weird to be having sex with you and still calling you by your surname."

Cutter laughed. "Whatever you want," he gasped, thrusting against him again. He slid his hand between them and wrapped it around their cocks, moaning when Stephen's hand joined his.

They were both thrusting now, little moans and whimpers escaping them as they got closer to coming. Stephen reached up with his other hand and pulled him down for a hard, hungry kiss, only breaking it when he came.

Cutter groaned hoarsely and buried his face in Stephen's neck, muffling his moan against the sweaty skin. He lay there for a second, letting Stephen hold him and then he rolled to the side, not letting go of Stephen but not wanting to squash him either. "We're going to either need to go for another swim and scare all the fish off again or find something to clean up with and do more laundry later," he said.

Stephen chuckled. "We have all day to catch dinner," he said. "We have just about enough supplies to make lunch. Why don't we go for another swim and then take a nap before we worry about fishing. Besides it's not like we brought rods and lines, we're going to have to either make some kind of nets or traps or spear them..."

Cutter groaned. "I didn't even think about how we were going to do it. Let's worry about it later. You're pretty good at spear fishing from what I remember anyway and if we head up above the beaver dam we should have better luck."

"Nap first?" Stephen asked, hopefully.

Smiling, Cutter leaned over and kissed him gently. "Yes, love, bath and nap first. Like I'm going to complain about having a chance to curl up with you for a while." He stood up and stretched before making his way back into the water. If they could just find a way of catching dinner, this might be an enjoyable holiday after all, even if they were stuck in the past.

~*~*~*~

They decided to let Helen sit on her own with only a silent, armed guard for company until after lunch. In the mean time the new arrivals settled into their tent and got a briefing from Ryan on what was they had learned.

After lunch Connor dragged Abby off for a 'field test' of his robot, or James as he was now calling it. Ryan wondered whose idea that had been and what Lester was going to say about it when he found out. He didn't think that robots and dinosaurs had featured heavily in Lester's career plan, but he seemed to take most of it in his stride and while he still snarked at all of them, Ryan rather thought he had a soft spot for Connor.

Claudia and Ryan headed for the tent they were holding Helen in. Hopefully they would be able to convince her that it was in her own interests to tell them what they needed to know.

Ryan held the flap open so Claudia could duck under it and then he followed her into the tent. "Good afternoon, Helen," he said calmly. "I brought you a visitor."

Helen glared at the pair of them. "Tell this thug to let me go. You can't just go around kidnapping people and holding them against their will."

"You're not people," Claudia said, coolly. "Legally you're dead. If I were you I'd play nice and answer some questions so that when your escort gets here and takes you back to the ARC and Lester we can tell them you cooperated."

Helen just rolled her eyes. "My husband is stuck in the Neolithic, I already told GI Joe that." She gestured at Ryan, who didn't react to her words. He was used to Helen insulting him and he just ignored it. "The anomalies in this valley appear and disappear fairly frequently but I don't know when they'll be back. They usually last at least a few days when they're here though so you should have plenty of time to go through and drag him and Stephen back."

"How did you know they were going to be here?" Claudia asked. "I don't believe it's just coincidence that you're here."

"Do you even talk to your soldier?" Helen sneered. "I told him. Stephen mentioned a trip to Scotland and I made an educated guess that this is where he was heading. I just wanted to make sure they were all right."

"You don't really expect me to believe that, do you?" Claudia asked. "More likely you wanted to accidentally let it slip that you'd been spending time with Stephen, just in case they were managing to get past your last revelation." She turned to Ryan, pointedly ignoring Helen. "Keep her here until the escort turns up. If the anomalies reopen while she's still here take her through with you. It should give her an incentive to make sure you don't all get stuck as well while you're looking for Nick and Stephen. If the escort turn up before then we'll send her back to London; the trouble of keeping her around isn't worth the potential benefit."

"Don't just walk away from me!" Helen snapped, but Claudia continued to ignore her.

"I'm not sure the benefit of taking her with us is worth the trouble anyway," Ryan said. "Can't we just find one of her prehistoric friends and feed her to them?"

Claudia laughed, ducking out of the tent and shaking her head at him. "As much of a pain in the neck as she is I don't think the dinosaurs have done anything to deserve Helen, do you?"

He grinned at her. "Maybe not. Fine we'll take her with us but you know she's just going to use it as a chance to escape."

"Well, don't let her!" Claudia told him firmly. "I have faith in your abilities to keep hold of one prisoner, Ryan, even when you're looking for our missing scientists."

~*~*~*~

Cutter woke up to find Stephen propped up on one elbow, smiling down at him. He flushed all over. "You could have woken me up earlier," he said.

"I was enjoying just watching you sleep," Stephen said and then he ran a hand over his face in embarrassment. "God, that sounded sappy. I'm sorry."

Cutter chuckled. "I don't mind, but I can't imagine it's that enthralling a sight, Stephen." He sat up and stretched. "We should get dressed again and start work on catching dinner. Did you have a plan or are we just making this up as we go along?"

Smiling, Stephen leaned over and kissed him slowly. "I think this is a better way to wake up. There's no need to rush it."

Cutter pulled him closer, kissing him again and eventually reluctantly pulling back, pressing a final gentle kiss to the corner of his mouth before pulling back, leaving his hand resting at the back of Stephen's neck. "Better?" he teased.

Stephen blinked at him and then smiled slowly. "Much." He stood up and held out a hand to pull Cutter to his feet as well. "Get dressed and we'll head for the pool above the beavers' dam. "I used to be able to fish with my bare hands. A friend of mine taught me. It's been a while, but I think I can remember what to do. I can even teach you if you want."

"I like your teaching methods, you're very... hands on," Cutter said, grabbing his trousers and starting to pull them on.

"Not usually in the way you mean," Stephen chuckled. "But I could be."

"Oh, an incentive," Cutter said with a naughty grin.

Stephen laughed out loud, pulling Cutter closer for a sudden, hungry kiss, and nearly ending up back on the ground again when Cutter stumbled, tripping over his own trousers which were still around his knees.

"Sorry," he apologised. "You caught me off guard, Stephen. You okay?"

"I'm fine," Stephen told him, reluctantly letting go once Cutter was standing on his own two feet again. "That was my fault anyway, grabbing you like that."

Cutter grinned again, a school boy grin that said he was thinking something he thought he shouldn't be. "I like you grabbing me. Just, maybe a bit more notice next time. We can't all be graceful dancer types like you."

Stephen ducked his head and then smiled back. "Maybe I should take you dancing some time," he suggested, pulling his boxers on and then stepping into his trousers.

"I probably wouldn't be very good at it," Cutter admitted, shrugging his shirt on.

Stephen rolled his eyes. "Cutter, I'm offering you a chance to be able to be very close to me and either get sweaty or just ..." He shrugged. "Cuddle and sway to the music. Doesn't that sound good?"

"Well, when you put it like that ..." Cutter smiled and sat down, pulling his boots back on and lacing them up. "You know, you still call me Cutter. I think, under the circumstances, you might try using my first name occasionally."

Stephen grinned and helped him up again, kissing him briefly. "If you insist, Nick."

~*~*~*~

Abby followed Connor up over the hill and down into the next valley. "Since when does James need field trials, Connor?"

"Well..." Connor looked down and shuffled his feet slightly. "He doesn't really, but there's nothing to do but sit and wait and hope the anomaly comes back. I just thought, this way we'd be doing something, but still close enough to the camp to go back if it does re-open."

Leaning over, Abby kissed him on the cheek. "You're sweet when you're worried," she said. "So what shall we test him on?"

"I don't know," Connor admitted. "Why don't we set up some kind of obstacle course and then take turns driving him through it? I can show you how to use him if you want."

"Sounds like fun," Abby said brightly, trying to pretend this was just a trip out into the country rather than an expedition that was waiting to see if their friends would ever make it home or if they'd be stuck in the stone age forever. "How is he with water? I don't want him blowing up or anything and I know my hair dryer isn't meant to get wet for a start."

"All the electrics are inside," Connor insisted. "I made sure it was waterproof, dust proof, rustproof, bulletproof, and everything else proof too. Only thing it isn't safe against is being trodden on by a dinosaur, which in retrospect is probably a design flaw but I didn't think Lester would pay for armour-plating."

Abby laughed. "No he probably wouldn't." She grabbed some rocks and started working out a little course that would take it down the hill, around some sharp turns and across the stream before coming back. "I can't believe they've done this to us again," she complained.

"Disappeared through an anomaly and left us waiting on the other side?" Connor said. "I know. It's downright inconsiderate if you ask me and honestly you'd think they'd have learnt from last time. Still at least there's no bug things coming out of this one."

"And if there are we can get special forces to chase them," Abby said, smiling again. "Of course I reckon if Claudia smiled nicely Ryan would do pretty much anything she asked."

"What?" Connor asked, staring at her in confusion.

"Oh honestly, Connor, you can be so dense sometimes," she complained. "Didn't you see him on the plane with her? And the way they keep smiling at each other when they think no one's looking? They're cute."

Abby sat down next to him and straightened his hat, tugging it further onto his head. "You're just totally oblivious sometimes. How is it you ever managed to get a girlfriend?"

"I do okay with women," he complained. "You don't have to sound so surprised. Besides I dumped her, like Stephen suggested."

"If you do so well with women, why are you taking advice from a man who slept with his best friend's wife?" Abby asked dryly.

"Well, it wasn't really advice," Connor said, back-pedalling hurriedly. "Not really. Just a second opinion, you know? I didn't think we had the right vibe so I though, no use dragging it out you, tell her straight out. I think we should break up. So I did."

"If you say so," Abby said, smiling fondly at him. "Now give me the controller and let me see how James manages on the course."

"No! He's mine," Connor said, cradling the remote control protectively against his chest. "I get the first go. Besides I have to show you what to do."

He turned the power on as Abby watched and James fired up, his motor making a soft purring sound in the quiet of the valley. Then slowly Connor began to steer him down the soft slope, smiling proudly as the wheels managed to keep their grip on the grass. As he started swerving around the rocks Abby had found, Connor gained confidence and started going faster, until, on a particularly sharp bend, James toppled over and started tolling down the hill.

"Oh, no, stop," he cried, wincing every time James rolled over. Roof, wheels, roof, wheels, roof, wheels, until, splash, it ended up upside down in the stream. "Oh James!" H called out worriedly, scrambling to his feet and running down the hill to collect his gadget.

He cuddled James close as he carried him back up the hill to where Abby was still sitting and dropped down next to her.

"I'm sure he's fine," she said encouragingly. "James is everything proof, remember?"

"I know, but it was a long fall," Connor said worriedly.

"Well, let's have a look at him," she said. "Is he still in working order?"

Connor carefully wiped the mud off James with his shirt and inspected him. "He seems to be." He put him down on the grass gently and pushed the power button again. The little motor rumbled back into life again and he grinned delightedly. "He still works."

"Can I have a turn now?" Abby asked.

Connor looked at her and sighed, reluctantly handing the controls over. "I suppose so, but be careful. He doesn't need any more accidents."

"I won't hurt him," Abby said, pushing the control forwards. James trundled happily down the hill and around the rocks. She pushed the accelerator and he sped up, shooting down the rest of the hill and across the stream, his momentum helping him climb the bank on the other side. A quick flick of the controls had him turning one hundred and eighty degrees on the spot and then he trundled back across the stream, up the hill, and came to a stop just in front of Connor.

"How did you do that?" he asked, gaping at her.

"I shared a house with three boys and a Playstation when I was at university," she said. "Before I dropped out to work at the zoo. We used to decide who did all the housework with a competition every Sunday. I got really good at race car games." She grinned at him.

He glared. "You might have told me."

"You didn't ask," she said, smiling innocently. "Come on. Let's head back to the camp and see if they've got anything out of Helen yet."

~*~*~*~

By the time Stephen finally talked Cutter into joining him in the water, he'd already caught half a dozen fish. Admittedly, they weren't very big fish, but they were big enough to keep the two of them from going hungry and that was the important thing. If they were going to be here any length of time they'd have to see about making traps of some kind or they'd spend their entire time just trying to find enough food not to starve.

"I'm really not going to be any good at this," Cutter said self-consciously. "You're the one with all the hand eye coordination and athletic skills. I'm the clumsy one."

"Hush," Stephen told him. "You'll be fine and even if you don't catch anything just think how much fun trying to learn is going to be. We're both in the water, mostly naked, and I'm going to have to be pressed up behind you as you try to catch something ..."

"You know, when you put it like that it sounds a lot more appealing," Cutter told him, the faintly apprehensive look finally being replaced with a small smile. He made his way out into the deeper water, stopping when it reached his waist. "So what do I do?"

Stephen stepped up behind him, reaching around and taking hold of Cutter's wrists, guiding his hands into position. With both of them bending slightly to look into the clear water of the river, he was pressed obscenely close to Cutter, just like he'd said he would be. In this position concentrating on the fish was the last thing he wanted to do, but he knew Cutter could do this if he just paid attention and he wanted to see the look on his face when he caught his first fish.

Cutter could feel himself getting had at the intimate way Stephen is holding him, but he knew that Stephen wasn't really trying to start anything and he honestly did want to teach him to fish. Looking down into the water he tried to focus on what he was meant to be doing.

"Just concentrate," Stephen whispered, his breath tickling Cutter's ear and making him shiver. "Watch the water and see what you can see. Track the movement of the fish and then grab it. Don't worry if you miss the first few, the water bends the light and they might not be quite where you thought they were going to be."

Cutter nodded, forcing himself to ignore Stephen's body against his own and concentrate on the fish.

"There's one," Stephen whispered. "Watch it, that's right ... now!" He moved Cutter's hands and they tried to grab it but Cutter wasn't quite fast enough.

"Damn," Cuter cursed. This was even harder than he'd thought it was going to be.

"It's okay, you were close," Stephen said encouragingly. "There's a lot of fish in here."

Cutter wriggled slightly, getting into position and Stephen had to bite back a groan. This was going to be torture, he hoped Cutter caught something soon.

"There's another one!" Cutter said, starting to feel a bit more confident that he could do this thanks to Stephen's evident faith in him.

The fish slowly swam closer and they both held still. Stephen nudged him slightly and Cutter lunged for it, closing his hand around it but losing it when he tried pulling it out of the water.

Stephen laughed. "Was I supposed to warn you that fish are slippery?" he asked.

"Laugh it up," Cutter grumbled. "I'm going to get the next one."

Stephen nodded. "Of course you are. Since you seem to be getting the hang of it and because I'm not sure that we'll actually catch anything if I have to stand here like this for much longer I'm going to go and sit on the bank. Show me what you learned."

Cutter watched him make his way to the bank, admiring the way his boxers had gone see through because of the water. He looked up as Stephen turned around, blushing when it was obvious Stephen had caught him staring. "It's a nice view," he said, grinning at him.

Stephen just chuckled. "I don't mind. I kind of like knowing you're watching me."

Turning back to the water, Cutter took a deep slow breath and concentrated on the fish again. He could do this. He almost forgot Stephen was there as he watched the slow flowing water. There, a flash of silver. It was another fish. He waited, forcing himself not to move too quickly, waiting for it to come into range and then he grabbed for it. As he pulled it out of the water he nearly lost it, juggling it a few times before managing to toss it up onto the bank with the ones that Stephen had caught.

He looked over at Stephen, smiling jubilantly. "I did it! I caught one!" he said.

Stephen jumped into the water and pulled him into a tight hug. "That's fantastic," he said, smiling broadly. "I knew you could. I didn't want to tell you earlier in case it put you off, but I didn't catch anything on my first attempt. You did really well." He hugged him again and felt Cutter's arms coming up around him, holding him close.

Cutter pulled Stephen down for a long kiss. "Thank you. I couldn't have done it without you."

Stephen smiled and pulled him even closer, sliding his hands down to squeeze his ass. "Watching you manage it was worth it, Nick. I'm so pleased for you. But you know, if you really want to thank me..." He grinned wickedly and surprised Cutter into a laugh.

Kissing him again, Cutter gradually backed him up towards the bank. "Grab the fish and we'll take them back to our camp site and then after dinner I'll be as appreciative as you want," he teased. "How does that sound?"

Stephen kissed him briefly before climbing out of the water and holding out a hand to help Cutter out as well. "Sounds just about perfect, Nick."

~*~*~*~

Connor groaned when someone grabbed his shoulder and started shaking him. "Wha? Whassup? What time is it?" he mumbled sleepily.

"The anomalies are back," Ryan told him. "You have to get up and send James through so we can get a rescue party together."

"Huh?" Connor sat up and blinked. "The anomaly? Oh! The anomalies? They're back." He scrabbled around in the semi-darkness of the tent and found his trousers. Wriggling into them he jammed his feet into his boots and grabbed James and the remote control. "OK I'm ready, let's go," he said.

Ryan smiled. It had taken a while to wake Connor up but as soon as he'd realised what was going on he'd really leapt into action. "We're going to send James through and then if he says it's safe I'm leading a group through. I need you and Abby to come with us. Helen is coming as well but she'll only warn us about something dangerous if she thinks it's going to eat her and I'm not putting my men's lives in her hands."

Connor was pleased. "We'll make sure you don't run into anything dangerous, but if it's the anomaly the Irish Elk came from you should be okay," he promised. "Irish Elk, Aurochs, which are like huge cows, keep clear of them and they won't bother you, lots of smaller mammals, that kind of thing. There might be predators like the smilodon or wolves but if we're not there long we should be all right and if we keep to the open ground we'll be able to see them coming."

"So no dinosaurs then?" Ryan asked, mostly teasing because he had learned some things by hanging around with the geeks this long, but while Connor was in lecture mode he wasn't nervous. Ryan knew that when it finally occurred to him that he was going through an anomaly, into the past, he was going to become a nervous wreck. As long as he had a job to do and information to give, he wouldn't have the time to worry.

"No!" Connor said, appalled that someone would think there were dinosaurs around in the stone age. "Dinosaurs and humans never coexisted, no matter what you learnt from Fred Flintstone."

Ryan chuckled and Connor blushed. "You already knew that, didn't you?"

"Yes, but I like listening to you lecture," Ryan told him. "You get this animated little glint in your eye and start waving your hands around like you're conducting an orchestra. It's fun. I don't understand how all that stuff can make you so happy, but it does and it's nice watching people talk about their passions. Even if you and Cutter do both give the impression that there will be a test at the end." He grinned mischievously, making Connor laugh.

"I promise no tests," Connor said. "But if you shoot something I've told you is harmless it could affect your final grade."

Ryan laughed and slapped him on the back. He pointed at the anomalies. "You want the one on the right. Put James down and show us what he can do."

Connor carefully put the robot on the ground and steered it towards the anomaly. One of the soldiers put his laptop next to him and they booted it up so they could see the pictures that James was sending back to them. "Okay," he said softly. "Wide open grassy plain, trees. I'm not seeing any predators or large mammals near the anomaly so it should be safe to go through. No sign of Stephen and the Professor though."

"There's no water in sight," Ryan said. "They would have had to go looking for the nearest water source if they were going to be there a while. Don't worry, Connor. I'm sure they're fine."

"No sign of any human activity, that's good," Connor continued. "The professor would be upset if we bumped into a tribe of people and changed history."

"I don't suppose Lester would be all that pleased either," Claudia said dryly.

"He wouldn't know," Connor told her. "Only those of us on the other side of the anomaly would." He paused. "If we do change history whose job is it to tell him?"

"Mine," Ryan said firmly. "But let's not think about that right now. We're going to be in and out. Go through, collect Cutter and Stephen, and come back. No changing history, no encounters with wolf packs or any other predators, no getting stuck."

"We hope," Abby said under her breath.

"Right," Ryan said, choosing to ignore her. "Everyone get your kit and be ready to go in ten minutes. Bring Helen Cutter out, she's coming with us. If she knows anything about the anomalies with any luck her own sense of self-preservation will make her tell us when this one is about to close or help us find another one if we get stuck. Claudia, tell Lester that if we get trapped on the other side he is under no circumstances to send another team in after us. We'll find our own way home if we have to."

After Connor had brought James back through the anomaly, he, Abby, and the soldiers all returned to their tents to grab their packs and any other supplies they thought they might need, leaving Ryan and Claudia alone in front of the anomaly.

"I'll call James on the satellite phone and tell him what you're doing," Claudia said. "Be careful, Tom."

"I will," he promised. "We're all coming back from this one, along with Cutter and Stephen. The reinforcements should be here later today. If we're not back by tonight have them put a guard on the anomaly and don't let anyone else go through it."

She nodded. "I will, but you'll be back before they get here. I have faith in you."

He smiled softly. "Thank you. I'll try and live up to it, Claudia Brown." Turning, he headed back to his tent to pick up his own pack and then went to collect Helen.

Once they were all back in front of the anomaly again Ryan quickly checked everyone's equipment. "All right, is everyone ready to go? Connor your with me. The only thing you have to worry about is identifying any creatures we come across and telling us if they're a threat. Abby you stay near the back for now. Carter, your job is to protect Abby and make sure she gets back through the anomaly in one piece, I'll take Connor. Jackson, you take the rear, Holt, you take point. Simmons, you and Thomson are responsible for the prisoner. Now let's move out."

"I don't need a babysitter," Connor complained.

"Connor, shut up," Ryan ordered. "You're going to do what I say or you're going to stay behind. Abby's not arguing."

"But ..."

"No!" Ryan turned to look at him seriously. "Identifying the dinosaurs, that's your job; keeping everyone safe, that's my job. So let me do it."

Connor stared at him for a minute and then backed down. "All right, I'm sorry."

Ryan squeezed his shoulder gently and then gestured for Holt to lead the team through the anomaly and into the Stone Age.

Connor took a deep breath and stepped through his first anomaly. He'd wanted to do this for so long, but the Professor and Stephen always tried to stop him and Abby. He knew they were trying to protect him but it didn't seem fair that they got to have all the fun. Of course, it did mean that up until now they were the only ones who'd ever been trapped in the past. But still, it was the actual Stone Age; how cool was that!

He stopped dead when he emerged onto the grassy plain he'd seen from James' camera and then Ryan tugged him sideways.

"Let everyone else come through as well," he said, smiling indulgently. "So, does it feel like you thought it would? Standing here in the past, I mean."

"It's brilliant," he said softly. He was almost afraid to talk too loudly; everything felt almost magical. "I'm standing in the Stone Age."

By this time, everyone else had come through the anomaly as well and Abby had the same almost unbelieving look on her face that Connor did.

"Wow," she said. "Look at it; it's beautiful here."

"Where would they go, Connor?" Ryan asked. "If you were them, what would you do?"

Connor looked around. "Well, personally I'd stay out here, those woods look a bit scary," he said. "But they don't want to be seen by any locals and a fire would show up for miles out here so I would guess they're in the woods." He looked at Ryan hopefully.

"That was what I was thinking," Ryan said. "Anything scary likely to be lurking in the woods?"

"Depends where we are," Connor said. "Wolves, big cats maybe, but I think they're more likely to be out here on the plains. The aurochs and the deer are mainly too big to go into the woods and predators follow their prey, right?"

Ryan nodded. "Good work, Connor. OK guys, let's go. Holt, keep an eye out for any tracks. Jackson, you and Thomson stay here and guard the anomaly. If it starts to vanish, radio us and then get back through." He turned to Helen. "How long is it likely to stay open for?"

She shrugged. "I already told you, I don't know. I don't know much about these anomalies."

"Fine," Ryan said, not believing her. "You're coming with us. If they close while we're away then you can find us another way home."

"I told you ..." Helen started.

"Yes, yes, you don't know anything," Ryan said. "I don't believe you. Let's go, Holt."

They made their way carefully into the woods. Holt led them to a glade that had the marks of a recent camp fire in it. "They must be fairly nearby, sir," he said. "The ashes are still warm." He looked around carefully. "There are several trails leading out of here. I'm not sure which is the most recent. I think they must have been camping here every night and then exploring during the day. Most of them head in the same general direction though, so they've probably found a fresh water source of some kind."

Ryan nodded. From what he knew they both had plenty of experience at living for short periods in the wilderness and they would have immediately looked for water. "Let's head in that direction then and see if we can find them."

They picked their way carefully through the undergrowth, finally coming out into the open as a small river threaded a path through the trees.

"Look!" Connor said excitedly. "Beavers. Oh my God, this is so cool. I've only ever seen them in zoos before."

He ran down to the riverbank, followed closely by Abby, both of them skidding to a halt when the beavers looked in their direction. They crouched down and pointed at the beavers, talking in hushed but excited tones until a cry from somewhere further along the river startled the animals and humans alike.

"Connor, Abby," Ryan snapped. "Get back here."

The whole group ran along the river towards the sound, Holt and Ryan breaking their own trail through the undergrowth. Carter was practically pulling Helen along, his hand through her arm to keep her from tripping since her hands were still tied behind her back.

When they crashed through the bushes into a clearing, they came to a skidding halt. Cutter was leaning against a tree, his trousers and boxers around his ankles, with Stephen kneeling in front of him, apparently doing his best to swallow Cutter's cock whole.

"Oh my God," Connor gasped as he stopped next to Ryan. Abby squeaked and turned her back. The soldiers showed that all their training had at least led to a large degree of self-control and managed to keep quiet, although Carter's jaw was about to trail in the dirt. Unfortunately, Helen didn't have the same restraint.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" she shouted, trying to run towards them. Ryan grabbed her by her arm as she went past him and yanked her backwards again, only his tight grip stopping her from falling on her ass from the sudden movement.

Cutter's head shot round at Helen's words and his eyes went very wide. "Oh Christ," he cursed.

Stephen jumped to his feet and put himself between Cutter and their audience, giving the other man time to hurriedly tuck himself back in and zip his trousers up.

"I take it the anomaly opened up again," Stephen said, looking at Helen but speaking to the soldiers.

"Stephen!" Helen snapped. "How can you stand there like that when you're apparently fucking my husband?"

"Easily," he shot back. "Because it's none of your damn business."

"And I'm not your husband," Cutter said calmly, stepping out from behind Stephen. "You were declared dead. Marriages last until death do us part. There's nothing in there about one partner coming back from the dead or from the distant past for that matter. Now, I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't want to risk spending the rest of my life in the Stone Age, so shall we go?"

"Do you know the fastest way back from here?" Ryan asked them, ignoring the spluttering woman by his side.

Both men turned to look at him and Stephen went pale. Cutter's jaw dropped and he stared at him for a second. "Captain Ryan?"

Ryan looked at the rest of his group, trying to figure out what was wrong with Cutter and Stephen, but they all looked as confused as he felt. "What's wrong? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"We have," Stephen said hoarsely. "You're dead."

Ryan looked down at himself and then back at them. "I'm not!" He knew as he said it that it was a remarkably stupid thing to say, but really, what do you say when someone tells you you're dead?

Cutter looked at Stephen. "Bugger, we've changed history again." He turned back to Ryan. "Not that I'm not incredibly pleased to see you in one piece, you understand. But the last time I saw you, you were dead and I'd just managed to bury you in a shallow grave in the Permian era."

"The Permian, is that the one with the gorgon thing?" he asked Connor.

"Yeah. It's the one in the Forest of Dean," he said absently. "Ryan was really dead?"

Cutter nodded. "The gorgonipsid attacked us when we took the future predator babies through. All the soldiers were killed; only Helen and I survived. Ryan, when we went through that anomaly the first time and found Helen's camera, did we find a body?"

Ryan shook his head. "No, just a box of supplies and signs of a fight. When the gorgonopsid attacked, we fought it off, Cutter. Two of my men were badly injured, but no one died."

Cutter ran a hand through his hair distractedly. "The first time we went through we found a body. After the second fight I realised it was your body we'd found on that first trip. You must have taken more men in this time line." He shook his head. "I have no idea how this happened and I really wish we could stop changing things because it's pretty unnerving, but I'm very glad to see you, Ryan."

Stephen grinned. "Me too, mate. Cutter came back, with blood on him, and Helen right behind him. Told us you were all dead." He shuddered. "And then he discovered the time line change and started freaking out."

"I know how he feels," Ryan muttered. "I think I might do that later." He forced a smile. "But for now, let's get the hell out of here. We left Claudia on the other side all on her own and she's probably getting worried by now."

Cutter had turned to lead the way through the forest as Ryan was speaking and he almost walked into a tree at his last words. "Claudia!" He spun around again. "Claudia Brown?"

Connor nodded slowly. "Don't tell me she's meant to be dead too. This is turning into a bad episode of Stargate or something."

Cutter shook his head. "This is going to sound insane, but bear with me. In the original time line before we changed things in the Permian, Claudia was our Home Office contact. When Helen and I stepped out of the Permian, after Ryan's death, Claudia no longer even existed. None of you had heard of her."

"Does the ARC still exist?" Stephen asked nervously. He was really beginning to regret not being more sympathetic towards Cutter now.

"Of course, why wouldn't it?" Abby asked.

"Cutter says in his original time line there was no ARC, we were still working out of his office at the university," Stephen explained. "I don't remember that time line, only he and Helen do. But I've never met Claudia Brown, only Jenny Lewis."

"Who?" Connor asked.

Helen laughed. "Oh this is too funny. You keep worrying about me but the two of you seem to be destroying different bits of the recent past at every turn."

"Shut up," Ryan told her. "Look, this is all very interesting, but we're a few million years further away from home than I'd like to be. Can we get back to the 21st Century before we continue this discussion?"

"Right, yes, good plan," Cutter said. He started walking. "Why did you bring Helen?"

Ryan started pulling Helen with them, not wanting to lose her. "We thought that she might be persuaded to tell us when it was going to close or at least find us another way home if she was stuck here with us. Besides, it was either that or leave her alone with Claudia and that just seemed like such a bad plan."

Cutter chuckled. "Claudia never did like Helen."

"That's probably because you and she were a couple in your time line," Stephen muttered. "You even have her picture in your wallet."

Cutter looked up at him in surprise. "That was then," he said. Lowering his voice so they couldn't be overheard he added, "You're not jealous or anything, are you?"

"Of course not!" Stephen denied hurriedly. "Just because nothing happened between us until after Claudia Brown vanished from the entire universe."

Cutter reached out and rested a hand on Stephen's arm. "You're sounding like a prat now. If I was looking for a Claudia substitute don't you think I'd have picked a woman rather than a six foot tall, rather muscular bloke? Really, you've got nothing to worry about, Stephen."

Stephen ran a hand through his hair self-consciously and grinned. "If you say so. I still want to meet this Claudia. You seemed to think rather highly of her, especially in comparison to Leek."

Cutter groaned, "Christ, I hope this means he's gone." He raised his voice again so the others could hear him. "If Claudia's back does that mean Oliver Leek doesn't work for Lester any more?"

"Leek?" Connor asked. "Never heard of him."

"Well that's something good that's come out of this change, anyway," Stephen said.

"Hey," Ryan said from behind him. "Don't I count? You said I was dead before you changed history."

They emerged from the edge of the trees onto the grassy plain again. A few hundred yards away they could see the sparkle of the anomaly with its two guards. Thomson beckoned to them frantically and the whole party broke into a run. Obviously something had happened while they were away.

When they got closer they could see that Jackson was sitting on the ground next to Thomson, his thigh wrapped in a tight, white bandage, stained with blood, and his uniform covered in dirt. Thomson wasn't much cleaner and he had the beginnings of what promised to be a rather stunning black eye as well as a cut on his temple.

"What the hell happened to you?" Ryan asked. "Never mind, tell me once we're all back through. Go on, move it."

Thomson and Holt pulled Jackson to his feet and went through first, followed by Carter and Abby, then Cutter and Stephen, Simmons and Helen and finally Ryan pushed Connor through, worried that the anomaly was starting to fade, and then followed him as fast as he could.

"Nick, Stephen, you're back!" Claudia said happily as the party stumbled back into the present. "Are you both all right?"

"Claudia!" Cutter said happily. "I'm so pleased to see you."

At the same time, Stephen exclaimed, "Jenny!"

"Who?" Claudia asked, confused.

"It's a long story," Cutter told her. "We changed time again. In the last time line you no longer existed, but Lester had a PR girl called Jenny. She looked exactly like you, but she was kind of ... scary. A sort of power suited career woman." He shrugged. "You're nicer than she is, not that she was bad, just not as friendly."

Claudia shook her head. "What do you mean I didn't exist?"

Stephen shrugged. "Sorry, in the time line I remember, I've never met you. Nick always said good things about you though."

"It could be worse," Ryan said dryly. "Apparently I was dead." He turned back to his men. "Let's get you two checked out properly, while Cutter and Stephen fill Claudia in on what's going on."

"They're hurt," Claudia said. "I can help. What about the rest of you, is anyone else injured? What happened?"

"We got ... attacked by some of the local fauna," Thomson admitted, ducking his head in embarrassment. "A herd of bloody great cows with big horns."

"Cows," Ryan said, raising an eyebrow. "You got run over by cattle?"

"Big cattle," Jackson told him. "They were grazing a way off and something must have spooked them and the next thing we knew they were charging in our direction. You told us not to shoot anything unless it was attacking us and they weren't really attacking, not in the traditional sense of the word, so we just tried to get the hell out of the way."

"There were a lot of them," Thomson added. "And they move bloody fast for such big animals."

Ryan shook his head. "Come on, let's get you both into a tent to lie down. When the reinforcements get here, we'll get you back to the car and get you checked out in the infirmary on the base. That should avoid any awkward questions that will upset Lester."

He looked around. "Simmons, where's the hell has Helen gone?"

Simmons looked guilty and spun around, but there was no sign of her. "Um," he started. "I'm sorry, sir, in all the confusion she must have slipped away through one of the anomalies."

"Damn it, you idiot," Ryan said, sighing heavily. "Never mind. Let her go. I'm not risking losing anyone chasing after. Lester's not going to be amused when I tell him we lost her again."

"Okay, Jackson and Thomson go back to your tent and rest until the reinforcements get here. Cutter, Stephen, you'll need to set yours up somewhere, we're probably going to have to stay the night. I don't want to try Jackson's leg over this type of ground in the dark. I don't imagine you'll mind sharing," he added with a slight grin. "Simmons, you can guard the bloody anomalies and if you see that woman again shoot her somewhere non fatal and stop her running off. Everyone else, find something to occupy yourselves." He sighed and ran a hand over his face; how had a simple rescue mission ended up so complicated?

"Why is he grinning at Nick and Stephen like that?" Claudia asked Abby as they headed back to their tent.

Abby grinned mischievously. "We interrupted them during an um 'intimate moment'," she said with a giggle. "I think they patched their friendship up all right. You should have seen Helen's face."

Claudia's eyes got wide and she blushed as she was immediately swamped with images of the two men together. "Goodness. I don't suppose you got any pictures?" she asked hopefully.

Abby laughed and shook her head. "Sorry. You'll have to try and walk in on them in the showers at the ARC. They look good together."

Both women giggled. Cutter, Stephen, Connor, and Ryan looked after them worriedly.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Connor asked.

"I don't think we want to know," Ryan said, slapping him on the shoulder. He shook his head and looked over at the other two men who were trying not to look at one another or anyone else for that matter. They both had their suspicions as to what the women were talking about and they really didn't want them confirmed. "You two better get your tent set up. And just remember, they're not soundproof," he teased. "None of us want to be treated to a show tonight, so either leave it until we get back to civilization or learn not to bloody scream."

Cutter blushed and Stephen laughed, wrapping an arm around his shoulders and pulling him closer. "I promise, no screaming," he told Ryan. "I think one show a day is more than enough." He laughed again and pulled Cutter with him towards an open space where they could pitch their tent.

Ryan shook his head again and pulled Connor towards theirs; they might as well get a rest while they could. With their luck, Thomson's herd of 'bloody big cattle' would decide to stampede through the anomaly next.

~*~*~*~

As soon as they'd pitched their tent, Stephen and Cutter crawled inside, both anxious to talk with at least a semblance of privacy. They stretched out next to each other on one of the sleeping bags and Stephen reached out to pull Cutter closer.

"You're sure you don't feel anything for Claudia?" he asked nervously.

Cutter shook his head. "Stephen, you're an idiot. I didn't decide to get involved with you because Claudia wasn't here, you know? You're hardly second choice." He leaned forwards and kissed Stephen softly. "I never thought you'd be the jealous type; you always seem so confident and secure." He smiled fondly. "I liked Claudia, a lot. But I didn't have time to find out if it could be more than that. She might be back now but it's too late because I've already fallen for you, you berk."

Stephen chuckled softly. "You know you could leave out the insults when you're telling me you love me."

Cutter grinned. "No, I couldn't. It wouldn't be right if we suddenly started making romantic declarations. Just stop worrying about Claudia. If I'd been all that gone about her I'd have made more of an attempt to charm Jenny."

"You don't have charm," Stephen pointed out, smiling to soften the words. "And Jenny was engaged."

"To a man she never saw and couldn't talk to. She spent most of her engagement party waiting for us to come back from the Silurian. I don't think her fiancé would have been much of an obstacle if I'd really cared for her."

"Okay, so you haven't been pining over Claudia," Stephen said. "And you still want this now we're back in the present instead of stuck in the Stone Age together?"

"Yes!" Cutter said. "Bloody hell, Stephen, how many ways do I have to say it?"

"Actually, you haven't said anything yet. But I'm used to that so I don't really mind." He wriggled closer. "How good are you at staying quiet? Because we weren't quite finished when they interrupted us," he teased.

"Christ, Stephen, I don't think I can stay quiet with you doing what you were. You're bloody good at it."

Stephen grinned wickedly. "Better find something to bite on then, Nick. Because I'd really like to finish." He reached out and cupped the growing bulge in Cutter's trousers. "And at least part of you agrees with me."

Cutter groaned, but he didn't make any move to stop him so Stephen decided to take that as consent. Slowly he unbuttoned and then unzipped Cutter's trousers and then started to pull them down, smiling to himself when Cutter arched off the sleeping bag to help him. No, Cutter definitely wasn't objecting.

He realised he hadn't taken the other man's boots off so he slid down and pulled them off, removing his own at the same time so they wouldn't get mud all over the sleeping bag, and then putting both pairs neatly by the side of the tent. He pulled Cutter's trousers off and slid back up, stroking him teasingly through the thin cotton of his boxers.

 

Cutter bit back a moan and grabbed Stephen's hand, placing it back on his aching cock and squeezing it. He arched up into the touch and Stephen grinned.

Stephen slipped his fingers into the waistband and slowly pulled the boxers down as well, licking his lips when Cutter's cock sprang free. "Just remember when we get caught that you weren't trying to stop me," he admonished.

"You're offering to suck my dick," Cutter pointed out. "And considering you got off earlier and I didn't, did you really think I'd stop you?" He wriggled impatiently. "Just do it, you bloody tease!"

Stephen chuckled and pressed a gentle kiss against his stomach, loving the way the muscles twitched under his lips. "You're a sexy bastard. I love the way you react. Pity we're in a tent, because I love hearing you scream."

"Next time," Cutter gasped. "When we're in the hotel or at home or wherever the hell we next manage to get some privacy, you can do anything you want. Just suck me, damn it!"

Stephen kissed his way across Cutter's stomach and over his hip before wriggling around so that he was straddling his legs and taking the leaking cock in his mouth. He moaned at the feel of it and dragged a corresponding moan from Cutter. He loved this, feeling Cutter's cock in his mouth and knowing that right now he would do anything if Stephen would only make him come. The combination of Cutter's vulnerability and obvious trust in him and his own feeling of power was almost as much of a turn on as Cutter returning the favour. He thought he might even be able to come just from watching and feeling Cutter as he sucked him.

Cutter arched up into Stephen's mouth. He closed his eyes and thrust his fist into his mouth to muffle the desperate sounds that were falling from him constantly now. He loved this. Stephen was so good at it and Cutter could really tell that he was enjoying himself. It wasn't something he was doing to be nice or in the hopes of reciprocation, but because he really loved doing it.

Stephen took as much of Cutter's cock in his moth as he could, swallowing around it and grinning at the muffled groan he heard as the other man's hips seemed to jerk upwards of their own accord. He slowly pulled back, tracing the vein on the underside with his tongue and stopping when only the head was in his mouth. He sucked on it eagerly, fluttering his tongue against it.

Groaning, Cutter arched up again, crying out softly. He cursed and bit his lip, his body shaking as he came. Running his fingers through Stephen's hair he gestured for him to slide back up the bed so he could kiss him. When he could reach he kissed him thoroughly, chasing every bit of his own taste until all that was left was Stephen. Pulling back he smiled softly.

"I love tasting myself in my lover's mouth," he said with a smile. "That was incredible. When we get home I'm going to make you scream, love."

"Anything I want, you promised," Stephen said with a teasing smile.

"I meant it," Cutter told him. "You think up what you want and when we get some time alone, I'll fulfil any fantasy you want."

Stephen grinned. "You have no idea how imaginative I can be when I want to, Nick."

Cutter just laughed and kissed him again. "I'm sure you can, but I don't mind. I doubt there's anything you can come up with that I wouldn't enjoy." He sat up and grabbed his boxers and his trousers, wriggling into them. "Thank you, Stephen, that was wonderful."

Stephen smiled and kissed him back. "Any time, Nick." He pulled him down to rest on his shoulder. "I mean it. I loved doing that for you." He chuckled. "You know, when you think about it, getting stuck in the Stone Age for a few days may have been the best thing that could have happened to us. We patched things up, we got together, and we got Ryan and your Claudia back. As long as we don't get back to London and find Boris Johnson is Mayor or something, I think we've come out ahead."

Cutter laughed. "You have an odd way of looking at things sometimes, Stephen," he said. "But in this case you might be right." He sat up again and stretched. "Come on, let's go and see what everyone else is up to. Maybe Connor will let us play with his robot or something." He grinned. "A tenner says I can get him around any course you want to set up faster than you can."

"You're on," Stephen said. "You ain't seen nothing yet, baby. Prepare to lose!" He jammed his feet back into his boots, crawling out of the tent and then holding his hand out to help Cutter out as well. "Hey, Connor!" he shouted. "Bring out that robot thing, we're going to have a race."

The End


End file.
